Due to the rising cost of imported edible oil and the impact that the conflict in Ukraine has had on wheat prices, many bakeries in the Philippines are reducing the size of a popular breakfast bun in order to make ends meet in the face of greater inflation. At Matimyas Bakery, a breadmaker in the suburbs of Manila, the somewhat …

PHILIPPINES: Following an off-the-scheduled 75 basis point rate hike to battle inflation, the Philippine central bank’s governor indicated on Friday that it “may or may not” boost interest rates at its policy meeting in August. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla indicated in a phone message that the bank will be “data reliant.” The central bank, however, will remain …

MANILA: 22-year-old Chin Ching Peng had to make a choice between her dream career as a copywriter and a new field that would give her more money to support her family. According to her account of her job search in February, “most jobs (as a copywriter) offered salaries of S$2,500 or S$2,800… the only one that paid more than S$3,000 …

Malaysia – Umno leaders seeking for an early 15th general election have been challenged by Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz to request this from the Yang di Pertuan Agong. According to Sinar Harian, the former minister claimed that instead of pressing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the unidentified Umno leaders should do it. Nazri was reported as saying that …

Malaysia – In the face of growing inflation, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said that he has no plans to hold a general election anytime soon, despite reports that elections might be scheduled by the end of the year. In an interview published today in Nikkei Asia, he said that increasing food prices and other living …

Malaysia – Malaysia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in March 2022 rose by 2.2 per cent to 125.6 against 122.9 in March 2021, surpassing the average inflation for the January 2011-March 2022 period which stood at 1.9 per cent, said the Statistics Department today. In a statement, chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the rise in headline inflation was …

Indonesia – The food cost expansion in Indonesia is as yet kept up with at 3.4 percent notwithstanding the nation being impacted by the Ukraine-Russia war that had caused food costs, particularly of wheat, to spike, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expressed. A few nations are now encountering food shortage, along these lines causing food costs at the buyer level to …

According to an economist, there is no need to be alarmed because of the Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) projection of headline inflation increasing to 5% in the second quarter of 2021. Malaysia University of Science and Technology Professor Geoffrey Williams said that core inflation was expected to remain between 0.5% and 1.5% while non-oil inflation was more likely to be …

The central bank’s monetary board’s decision to increase its inflation forecasts further moved real interest rates into negative territory, said DBS Bank Ltd. of Singapore. After an ambitious easing that saw rates drop by 200 basis points to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas agreed to hold interest rates steady at an all-time low …

Few days left till 2021 and the new year’s sustained higher oil and food prices could cause the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to remove monetary assistance from the ailing economy prematurely and jack up rates, raising the urgency of a compelling fiscal stimulus. In view of this, the supply fluctuations have kept food prices high and may be vulnerable …