FOR the original five Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members,  Standard Chartered Bank has two economists based in Jakarta, one in Bangkok, three in Singapore and none in the Philippines or Brunei.  

                Keeping a close eye on the Philippine economy instead is Simon Wong, a relatively new hire from the Monetary Authority, who is based in Hong Kong. Regional research head Nicholas Kwan is also based in HK.

                Kwan, who started his career as a researcher for South China Morning Post, spent years honing his craft with Merrill Lynch and the HK central bank. As far as his team is concerned, here’s the good news and the bad news about the Philippines and the rest of the world. 

                The global bad news is that the worst is yet to come. Think about the fourth quarter of 2008 or Christmastime. The so-called subprime mortgage has now widened to a systemwide credit-market crisis, with damages estimated by the International Monetary Fund at $1 trillion. Right now, only less than one-third of these losses have been accounted for. In comparison, the damage  caused by US savings and loans mess in the 1990s was $300 million; the 1997 Asian financial crisis, $500 million; the Japanese financial bubble, $800 million.       

                The good news is there is a more equitable distribution of wealth. Until 2000, the US was the only major locomotive of global economic growth. This time, there is Europe and the so-called emerging countries of China, India, Russia  and even the Middle East that are pulling their own weights. Said another way, the global economy is expected to be on track, continuing to grow within the historic range of 2 percent to 5 percent (read: this year, about 2.5 percent) as in other years. Until 2000 the US and other developed countries accounted for 75 percent of the world’s wealth, although they only had a fifth of the world’s population. Now, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) member-countries account for only a third of the world’s wealth.

                The Philippines is doing relatively well and will continue to do so this year so long as it realizes that last year’s problem needed a monetary solution (read: interest-rate adjustments), while this year’s problem needs a fiscal solution (read: maybe subsidies to consumers of basic food items and gasoline).  

Clearly, the Jollibee Group has big plans for its self-service or carinderia concept, “Tiyo Pepe.”

                For one, the name has to go, in large part because it sounds idiotic in the vernacular. For another, the man who made Chowking the second-biggest revenue earner in the group, Raffy de la Rosa, is now calling the shots.  

                Replacing him at Chowking is Erwin Eliechicon, a senior executive of consumer giant Procter & Gamble, both in the Philippines and in Indonesia, before accepting a job as a consultant reporting directly to Jollibee Food Corp. president Tony Tan Caktiong.  

Did you know 1: JG Summit Group president and chief operating officer Lance Gokongwei is now working out regularly, not an easy task for a man with a family who just loves to eat.

                Gokongwei’s goal is to be a triathlete, just like Ayala Corp. president Fernando Zobel de Ayala.  

Did you know 2:  San Miguel Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. recently visited the renovated Jaguar show room to take a close look at the new Jaguar XF. Okay, so Danding Cojuangco also chatted up with friend Wellington Soong, head of Philippine distributor  Jaguar Cars Inc.

                Interestingly, Jaguar Phils. has surpassed its first-quarter 2008 target by 40 percent. Year-on-year sales growth of Land Rovers has also been even more impressive at 100 percent.  

Did you know 3: Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is eyeing the overseas Filipinos based in Spain. If that pushes through, Spain’s business will be coursed through BPI’s London-based subsidiary.

                As everybody knows, BPI was adjudged by the Bangko Sentral as the bank of choice of OFWs  (read: the bank generated the most dollar business in the industry) for 2005 and 2006. Last year’s results are not yet out,  and there’s a guessing game now on how well the merged BDO-PCIBank did. Then again, the top three banks in 2006 were BPI, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and Philippine National Bank.

The government has yet to decide if the additional natural-gas supply from Malampaya will be channeled for power generation or for transport fuel.

Investment gains prop up San Miguel Q1 earnings

INVESTMENT gains from the sale of J.Boag & Sons and a portion of its stake in the packaging business drove San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) net profit to P11 billion in the first quarter, up 360 percent from the P2.4-billion net profit recorded in the same period last year.

THE Philippines’ largest media conglomerate ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said its net income fell 14 percent in the first quarter of the year to P242 million from P280 million in the same period last year.

GLOBE Telecom plans to spend close to P1 billion in acquiring the subscriber base of Touch Mobile (TM), the cellular brand of Innove Communications Inc.

FOR the original five Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members,  Standard Chartered Bank has two economists based in Jakarta, one in Bangkok, three in Singapore and none in the Philippines or Brunei.