The Philippine government said yesterday it is able to service its debt, scrambling to reassure jittery investors a day after the president rattled the markets by saying the country faced a fiscal crisis.
The country's currency slumped to a three-week low of 55.850 pesos to the US dollar on Monday after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement: "We are already in the midst of a fiscal crisis and we have to face it squarely."
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said Arroyo's statement appeared to be directed toward lawmakers reluctant to support higher taxes.
"The president recognizes there is a problem and unless we act, this could lead to a crisis," Neri told DZMM radio.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Arroyo, a Georgetown University-trained economist, was trying to "impress upon the people the seriousness of the situation ... [but] not to signal default, which will never happen."
Arroyo's comments came after a group of prominent local scholars warned that the country could face a financial meltdown in three years similar to Argentina's, which defaulted on its public debt in 2001 because of its ballooning deficit and a staggering amount of debt.
"We're not in that situation," said Amando Tetangco, the acting central bank governor. "I think she's trying to say there's a problem and we need to get the support of everyone to address it."
Foreign investors have long been deterred by the Philippines' huge debt and gaping deficit, and Philippine markets have been outperformed by other regional markets over the past year.
At the end of last year, the country's total debt stood at 3.36 trillion pesos (US$60 billion), equivalent to 78 percent of its gross domestic product. The budget deficit is forecast to hit about 200 billion pesos (US$3.5 billion) this year, mainly because of falling revenues and poor tax-collection efforts.
Arroyo has proposed new taxes intended to raise around 80 billion pesos (US$1.4 billion) to plug the deficit. Congress is expected to pass at least four of eight tax measures by the end of the year.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique