Category Archives: Economy

Economy

VALUE OF PHILIPPINE PESO AT ITS LOWEST IN 5 YEARS, AQUINO SAYS IT’S NOT HIS FAULT

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CaptureMANILA, Philippines ( The Adobo Chronicles® ) – The Philippine peso dropped to its lowest level since 2010, the year when President NoyNoy Aquino first came into office.

On Wednesday, the peso breached the 46 to the $1 to close at $46.26: 1. It was down from Tuesday’s level of 45.93: $1

In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) just last month, Aquino bragged about the accomplishments of his administration, including booming infrastructure, increased foreign investments in the country, decline in the number of Filipinos seeking overseas employment, among other things.

Aquino is known for taking credit for all things that are positive about the country, but also for blaming his predecessor for all that were negative.

The decline in the value of the Philippine peso does not bode well for the image that he is trying to project for his administration, but he was quick to say that this wasn’t his fault.  He blamed China for being first in devaluing its yuan currency.

China’s currency fell to a four-year low on Wednesday, slumping for a second day, after a central bank devaluation on Tuesday, and government sources believe the yuan may be allowed to slide even further to help the country’s exporters.

In addition to China, Aquino also blamed the governor of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipipinas ( Central Bank of the Philippines) for not doing a good job in maintaining the value of the peso.

 

 

Business, Economy, Travel

PHILIPPINES SUCCESS STORY: FROM BUS TO AIRBUS

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imageCABANATUAN CITY, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – We’ve seen many success stories about small businesses being transformed into multi-billion enterprises —  like Apple, Amazon and Google. They all started in some family garage.

The Philippines has its share of business success stories, but none as amazing as that of  Baliwag Transit, Inc., a bus transportation system with offices and terminals in various parts of Luzon. It mainly services routes to and from Metro Manila and Northern and Central Luzon. Most of its terminals are located in the province of Nueva Ecija, where some of its terminals are located in San Jose City, Baliuag and Cabanatuan City.

We can say that Baliwag Transit started in a garage, literally.

On Friday, the lowly bus company unveiled the latest unit of its fleet — an Airbus 380.

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by European aircraft company Airbus. It is the world’s largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it.

Unfortunately, no airport in Nueva Ecija is big enough or equipped to accommodate the Airbus 380.

So for now, the Baliwag Transit jumbo jet sits by a terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. And travelers to and from Nueva Ecija will have to take the old reliable motor bus.

It is a success story nonetheless!

Business, Economy, Food

TAIWAN’S TOFU, DURIAN EXPORTS SUDDENLY SKYROCKET

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Tofu vendor, left, and durian vendor, right
Tofu vendor, left, and durian vendor, right

TAIPEI, Taiwan (The Adobo Chronicles® )  – The Taiwanese government was pleasantly surprised when all of a sudden, its exports of tofu (soybean curd) and durian, a tropical fruit, skyrocketed.  This, in just the last two weeks.

International demand for these two exports increased more than 200% with orders coming from across the globe — from The Netherlands to Australia.

What was more puzzling is the fact that importers are flying into Taiwan to personally pick up their shipment. In addition, they were buying the tofu and durian only from specific vendors.

After an extensive market analysis and investigation, Taiwan’s Ministry of Trade and Commerce traced the sudden export surge to these two vendors (see photo).

Both the tofu and durian vendors told The Adobo Chronicles® that their goods are all on backorder at the moment.