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THE
slowing down of the United States economy and the
fallout from the political noise generated by on-going
corruption investigations won’t affect the Philippine
economy much, as remittances of more than 8 million
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) keep flowing and a
“good team” of economic managers is in place. If there
is one risk that could still impact on the economy, it’s
the prospect of rising oil prices. This was how James Dy,
president of the Filipino-Chinese General Chamber of
Commerce, assessed the current situation of the country
in an interview with Bloomberg TV in
Hong Kong Wednesday.
The
Palace has fired off a series of directives to
accelerate its first-half spending and thus cushion the
impact on the economy in case of a US slowdown.
Importers, said Dy, are taking advantage of current
global conditions by opening factories in
China
that will manufacture their products, which they will
later send back to the Philippines to avoid labor-cost
concerns.
He
emphasized, “China
is going up already, the wages and everything are going
up. Eventually, in the future they will have a higher
price, but as of now the commodities imported from China
are much cheaper.”
Asked by
Bloomberg anchor Catherine Yang why prices are not going
down despite the ability of importers to source goods at
a lower cost, Dy blamed higher oil prices.
“Although the peso is going up, the price [of oil]
remains unchanged. It’s [oil prices] been controlled by
the Opec [Organization of Petroleum- Exporting
Countries], and even our government wants to sell
cheaper gasoline; [it] cannot because [oil price] is
controlled by Opec,” explained Dy.
Crude
oil hit a record $100 per barrel in January, but later
declined to $88 to $90 per barrel the following weeks.
Dy
admitted the appreciation of the peso is favorable to
most of his group’s members who are into importation and
manufacturing, but conceded that exporters are hurting.
“I think
the economy should stop there [at the $1:P40 level]
already, or else our exporters will be suffering much.
It’s [peso appreciation] good for those importers that
we are consuming better merchandising and purchasing;
but for exporters, they might lose money,” explained Dy.
From
2004 the peso appreciated by P15 and recorded a value
increase of 26.65 percent in three years. |
