WHERE’S THE CRUSH?
It peaked
- at a nine-year high
then eased beginning November, prompting monetary authorities to pause from further tightening in December. A man walks towards the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on
HSBC said last month’s lower-
percent meant that consumer price growth was likely to return to the of 2019 — faster than expected.
- main a small risk amid the implementation of a second tranche of tax increases, HSBC said that relatively sharp disinflation in food and transport prices due to rice imports and lower oil prices
P108.7 billion.
“That is close to P12 billion a month. That means to say that individuals had actually additional P12 billion a month [ in aggregate] spending power,” he said.
“So don’t look only at the collection. Look at what was also given out directly to individuals. This Train law benefitted directly individuals who were earning P250,000 and below. Train has succeeded 100 percent in that regard,” the Finance chief claimed.
should offset this.
The bank added that its outlook for just one more US Federal Reserve rate hike in 2019 also meant there would be less pressure on the Bangko Sentral to hike rates to support the peso.
given that the BSP considers sharp
The biggest gains were seen in tobacco excise tax and documentary stamp tax collections.
The DoF said “better compliance and advance production” allowed excise tax collections from tobacco to reach P5.9 billion, 78.7 percent higher than the P3.3-billion target.
Higher transaction values and better collection efficiency, meanwhile, allowed documentary stamp tax collections to hit P49.1 billion, more than double the P21-billion target.
and rapid currency depreciation as one of the primary factors for any further rate hikes,” it added.
The currency ended 2018 at P52.58 versus the greenback, down sharply from its 2017 close
HSBC,
will
instead turn
their
The Finance department said it expected full- year Train revenues to hit the target of P63.3 billion “given overall good performance of the revenue agencies based on emerging full- year collection data.”
The department previously targeted full- year Train revenues of P89.9 billion but to slashed this due to delays in implementing fuel marking and electronic invoicing provisions.
MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
quarter of 2019), to
inject more and support growth,” it said.