The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has alloted a total of P3.43 billion this year out of the sale of its shares to finance its investments on infrastructure.

Committed investments in seven major investment promotion agencies (IPAs) has reached P227.4 billion in the first half, a 48.8-percent increase from a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

By Riza Lozada A British trade mission will visit the country next month to explore business opportunities and to establish local networks for possible investments.

Listed Roxas Holdings Inc. unit Roxol Bioenergy Corp. (RBC), had started maintenance repairs in its La Carlota City plant following a 30-day suspension by the city government due to foul odor the plant emits.

E-commerce advocates like the Ureka Forum and its consortium members hope the newly formed Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) can provide lasting solutions and empower the entire business value chain to go beyond their growth potential.

One of the strangest phenomena in the last six years under the Aquino administration was the dramatic increase in gross domestic productivity (GDP) amid nearly stagnant, if not negative, employment. Note, of course, that employment data are mere derivations—mathematical projections, like the imagining of a figure from shadows cast.

But none of it would have been possible—after all, in improbability lies the essence of a wish; no amount of flailing to reach the sky from the ground, it’s like that. Yet, because the past hardly ever locks us in, almost exactly the same wish somehow pops up.

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are expected to slow down as a result of lower job deployment and tighter fund-transfer requirements on banks, according to the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) periodic research paper Market Insights. 

Security Bank Corp. has targeted the opening of at least 500 branches nationwide in the next four to five years, with a focus on strengthening its provincial presence. 

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) has raised its forecast on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for this year to seven percent from a previous estimate of 6.3 percent.