Complaints by local workers that they are experiencing a rise in their cost of living have not been confirmed by official data, with surveys stating food, transport and medical costs are stable and the Consumer Price Index projected to increase at a relatively low rate of around 2 percent a year until 2022. The Consumer […]
Read MoreMANILA, Philippines (UPDATE 1 1:06 p.m., Sept. 29) — Around 2 million Filipinos would slide back to poverty this year because of the pandemic, nearly erasing gains over the past 5 years and making a rebound to pre-pandemic growth a struggle for the Philippines. The poverty rate could rise to 20.5% this year and 22.4% next year from the official 16.7% […]
Read MoreThe coronavirus pandemic is expected to lead to the slowest growth in more than 50 years in East Asia and the Pacific as well as China, while up to 38 million people are set to be pushed back into poverty, the World Bank said in an economic update on Monday. The bank said the region […]
Read MoreBANGKOK: Fiscal policy is back in focus in Thailand as the central bank runs out of conventional monetary policy space to spur the economy. With interest rates near zero, the Bank of Thailand last week called for “more targeted and timely” government policies to support the recovery. Yet latest figures show the government has been […]
Read MoreThe government is going ahead with the plan to implement the so-called National Logistics Ecosystem (NLE) platform, expected to cut red-tape, reduce high logistics costs and boost the country’s competitiveness, a senior minister has said. The platform is expected to reduce logistics costs from the current 23.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), […]
Read MoreKUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — The total wage subsidy approved to employers under the Wage Subsidy Programme starting April 2020 amounted to RM11.93 billion as at Sept 18, 2020, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz. He said the initial three-month programme (April, May and June), which had been extended for another three months (July, August and […]
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