The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

New operas; arts festivals; concerts; exciting collaborations in theater, dance and music; and the launch of the updated encyclopedia of Philippine arts will be the highlights of the 2017 season of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). 

Noli Me Tangere: The Opera (Touch Me Not: The Opera), National Artists Felipe de Leon Sr. and Guillermo Tolentino’s full-length operatic adaptation of Dr. José Rizal’s groundbreaking 1887 novel of the same title, will be staged once more by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and J&S Productions Inc. at the former’s Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) from January …

Twenty-two faculty members of the School of Design and Arts of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (CSB) are set to exhibit their latest works at the Altro Mondo Picasso gallery in Makati City from February 9 to March 5. 

Quezon City art gallery Artery Art Space opened on January 14 an exhibit titled Aliens vs. Robots, which explores the diversity of expression, bordering on orientations of technique and perception that offer emblematic images of place and terrain, ambience and mental mapping, body representation, psyche, and gesture. 

Welcome good fortune in the coming Year of the Fire Rooster with a great, value-for-money lunch-and-dinner offering from Eastwood Richmonde Hotel.

Economic experts are unanimous in their forecast that under the administration of President Duterte, the Philippines strong growth story will continue.

By Luis Leoncio Despite growing external risks and the troubling statements of President Duterte, the country’s “underlying growth story remains intact,” Bangko Sen­tral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in a recent speech before the Tuesday Club of journalists at the Edsa Shangri-La.

After a bitter clash over the increase in the Social Security Sys­tem (SSS) pension, the legislature and the Palace are again pitted against each other over the proposal of the Department of Finance (DoF) for an increase in excise taxes on fuel as a measure to compensate for the proposed law to lower income and corporate taxes.

By Riza Lozada The government has lined up measures, including subsidizing electricity costs in economic zones, to address business concerns about the high cost of electricity in the country, particularly during the shutdown of the Malampaya natural-gas facility.

The Duterte administration’s plan to increase borrowings from the domestic debt market this year won’t crowd out medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.