The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is conducting clinical trials to check the efficacy of virgin coconut oil (VCO) as health supplement against COVID-19.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) plans to give out P4-million cash assistance to artists and cultural workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Oil languished at multi-year lows, with WTI crude close to its weakest level since 2002, as dire warnings about a virus-triggered demand shock overshadowed massive output cuts.

A big number of businesses, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), are planning to do rapid testing on their workers to fasttrack resumption of their operations.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and local economists expect the economy to post a deep contraction in the second quarter this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III rejected a call for government to consider a moratorium on its debt payment to raise more funds to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it ‘narrow-sighted’.

Government is considering a “rolling restart” and “rolling reopening” schemes for the gradual lifting of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine after April 30 to help jumpstart the economy while the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is being contained, according to a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

In its meeting last April 16, 2020, the Monetary Board (MB) decided among others to reduce policy rates by 50 basis points to 2.75% and interest rate on overnight lending facility to 3.25%. 

President Donald Trump decided to cut off US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the UN body of mishandling the coronavirus crisis as governments grapple with how and when to get their struggling economies back to work.

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is now conducting mass testing at its two new testing laboratories that are capable of detecting faster the new coronavirus.