Philippine Benchmark Interest Rates Rise
No surprises here as market players start factoring in the almost-certain failure of the administation to keep its 2007 budged deficit target, now pegged at PHP 63 billion, in bidding for the government’s debt papers:
“Rates on the benchmark 91-day and 182-day Treasury bills rose anew at Monday’s auction, with the rate on the 91-day T-bill rising to 3.044 percent from 2.952 percent at the previous auction, while the rate on the 182-day paper increased to 3.721 percent from 3.560 percent previously.”
Anybody remember the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” in computing? Seems like it also applies to government finance as well:
“Three things are quite clear here. One is that the market has started factoring in the fiscal slippage. If we perform, we get rewarded; if we slip, we are penalized,” said outgoing National Treasurer Omar Cruz, who resigned from his post but will remain in office until the end of May.
The government is, nonetheless, bravely sticking to its 2007 budget deficit goals, and in order to do so without raising taxes – after all, it is an election year – will require some creative revenue raising measures, as Manuel Quezon III writing in Inquirer Current says, citing the proposal of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to regulate all Internet content now known to man, and charge fees therefore, as an example.
I suppose we’ll be seeing fees charged by various agencies like the Land Transportation Office for driver’s licenses, or the Land Registration Authority for land title transfers, to go up significantly to make up for the yawning hole in the government’s finances.
Another sign, perhaps, that the government is having a difficult time making ends meet:
“The Philippines’ net borrowings in the first quarter exceeded its programme by 3.6 percent, data from the Department of Finance showed on Sunday.
“Net borrowings — government gross borrowing in domestic and overseas markets less debt payments — amounted to P54.777 billion in January to March. This compared with programmed net borrowings of P52.849 billion.”
If these revenue-enhancing measures don’t work, the government will have no alternative except to raise taxes once again.
How to break into the competitive world of fashion modelling? Try this one for size: a Swiss graphics designer pulled the wool over the eyes of a Swiss newspaper and submitted a fake two-page Gucci ad spread featuring… himself:
“The man, who claimed to represent the Italian fashion giant, called up the Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung last week to book the expensive color spread in Sunday’s edition, a spokesman for the paper said.”
Elsewhere, Berliners go bonkers over a baby polar bear named Knut, and enterprising German entrepreneurs are now cashing in with all sorts of merchandise: Knut postcards, Knut credit cards(?), and of course, Knut plush toys.
Probably the most famous bear since Goldilocks and Winnie the Pooh. Awww, how cute.
I don’t think the present administration has done anything significant at all to rein the the fiscal excesses or to improve collection. Corruption is always the killer. Trading favors for support allows the continuation and perpetration of the existing malpractices.
With every administration, the problem gets bigger and subsequent administrations inherit problems that pose bigger hurdles. I guess the eventual unlucky President will have to call in th IMF and then it’s belt-tightening time for everyone. But at least the President that goes this way will be able to blame it on his/her predecessors.
*Sigh* No one wants to be the unpopular President!
It’s an election year Bayi so the administration has to spend. And spend some more.
[...] Captain’s Log finds the idea of registering blogs stupid. Pinoy.Tech.Blog’s resident lawyer, Punzi, points out what the legal issues involved, are (privacy, among them). The Unlawyer ties the website registration proposal, with a growing assumption, he says, among market players, that the government will be missing its revenue target goals. [...]