Business

This photo shows a picture of U.S. Dollars (STAR / Edd Gumban, file)  In March MANILA, Philippines —  Foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows climbed to $611 million in March from a year earlier, driven by higher investments across equity capital, reinvested earnings and debt instruments, according to the Bangko Sentral …

(Fitch Ratings photo) Global debt watcher Fitch Ratings has lowered its outlook on the Philippine banking system to “deteriorating,” warning that exposure to the ongoing United States (US)-Iran war could dampen lending activity, raise credit costs, and squeeze profitability. Fitch wrote in a June 8 commentary that Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) heavy …

AI-powered inventory planning is boosting revenues for Philippine sari-sari stores, with top products seeing a 79 percent surge in median sales, according to a report by local tech startup Packworks. The study, based on more than 1 million monthly transactions across a network of 300,000 micro-retailers, showed that store owners …

Starting in 2028, the Philippines will automatically exchange information on crypto-asset transactions annually with foreign tax authorities, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to OECD’s “Tax Transparency in Asia 2026: Asia Initiative Progress Report,” published on Tuesday, June 9, the Philippines has committed to …

Preliminary results of the PSA’s Labor Force Survey showed that the jobless rate eased to 4.7 percent in April from the previous month’s five percent, but went up from 4.1 percent in the same month last year (The STAR / Miguel De Guzman)  MANILA, Philippines —   Unemployment rate in the …

Asian Development Bank president Masato Kanda Asian Development Bank president Masato Kanda on Tuesday urged countries across Asia and the Pacific to accelerate the development of an interconnected regional power system as rising energy risks continue to challenge the region. In his opening speech at the Asia Clean Energy Forum …

Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s economic team is adopting a sober yet aggressive posture on the Philippines’ macroeconomic outlook, mobilizing a state-led fiscal catch-up program to counter stalling growth and stubborn inflation. Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon told reporters on the sidelines of the …

The World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. (STAR / File)  MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank is looking to extend around $3 billion worth of loans to support programs in the Philippines in the next fiscal year. Zafer Mustafaoğlu, division director for the Philippines at the World Bank told reporters …

PEZA director-general Tereso Panga (Courtesy: PEZA) The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) nearly doubled its investment approvals in the first five months of 2026, greenlighting 135 new and expansion projects worth P124.83 billion compared with P66.34 billion in the same period last year. The approved projects will likely generate 20,012 …

SEEK, the parent company of Jobstreet and Jobsdb, has launched its latest regional campaign, “Find Better Matches,” aimed at addressing persistent job mismatch by placing relevance at the center of the job search experience. The campaign spans six Asian markets, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia. …