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By Luis Leoncio  The Philippines has the potential of becoming a $1-trillion economy, from the current $200 billion, to rank among the world’s 20 biggest economies in 2030, if it can maintain its economic momentum, the Washington-based think tank and credit watchdog IHS Global Insight said. 

More than 3 percent of the country’s economic output each year become illicit funds, based on a study conducted by the Washington DC-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI). 

A noted economist pronounced grim prospects for the economy next year, with exports receipts continuing to fall and El Niño feared to vastly reduce agricultural output.

Consumers remain generally pessimistic, but the negative views are subsiding with the confidence index (CI) in a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Consumer Expectation Survey (CES) improving in the final quarter to a net negative 8.1 percent from a net negative 11.6 percent a year ago. 

By Riza Lozada Manila Water has haled the government to an international court to demand reimbursement for expected losses computed at P79 billion, as a result of the government’s violation of the terms of its contract. 

By Luis Leoncio  Corporate giants Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Globe Telecom and San Miguel Corp. (SMC) are girding up for what is expected to be a protracted, megabuck confrontation over the allocation of radio frequency that has been identifi ed for new-generation mobile technology.

By Riza Lozada and Jerry Maglunog  The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has placed “honoring the sanctity of contracts” on top of its wish list for the incoming administration, as it lamented the Aquino regime’s “unclear policies on government deals.”

The Philippines faces economic headwinds in the first half of 2016 despite the start of the campaign period for the national elections when consumer spending related to the polls are expected to surge, the United kingdom-based Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) said in a report. Still, SCB said the overall outlook is good in the second half.

By Luis Leoncio Business confidence rose to its highest level for the past two years as the economy maintained a healthy momentum coupled by an expected pickup in consumer spending in the runup to the elections next year.The closely watched overall confidence index (CI) grew to 51.3 percent in the third quarter of thre year, from 41.4 percent a year …

By Luis Leoncio The 6-percent economic growth in the third quarter that the gov­ernment trumpeted as “among the fastest in Asia” failed to impress the market, which was, in fact, disappoint­ed by the lower-than-expected figure.