Building permits granted for housing construction in thePhilippines
rose 20.3% year-on-year in the March quarter to 23,586, figures released by the National Statistics Office show.
At the same time, permits for non-residential building constructions went down by 28.8% to 2,978. Permits for additions, alterations and repairs to buildings dropped 1.9% annually to 3,428.
Southeast Asian emerging markets are looking increasingly attractive to wealthy Asian investors as they grow less optimistic on prospects in Greater China, a survey showed on Thursday.
Thanks to streams of foreign investment from the West and other parts of Asia, Southeast Asia is home to some of the region’s best performing stock markets this year, shrugging off bouts of volatility which have dragged down far larger markets.
The Philippine central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low as easing inflation gives it room to protect the economy from Europe’s debt crisis.
The Philippines has refrained from joining Malaysia, India, Thailand and South Korea in raising interest rates as Asia’s policy makers balance the need to sustain growth against the threats of inflation and asset bubbles. While the country’s inflation rate fell to 3.9 percent last month, the central bank said today “upward” pressure on prices has appeared and it “stands ready” to adjust monetary policy as needed.
The Philippine stock index will extend a 30-month high and reach a record this year after remittances accelerated and the central bank kept interest rates unchanged, the nation’s biggest foreign-owned stock broker said.
The benchmark will rise to 3,900 in 2010 as economic expansion gathers pace through next year, said Alex Pomento, a strategist at Macquarie Group Ltd.’s Manila unit. Banks and builders will beat the index as record-low borrowing costs and increased repatriation of funds from overseas Filipinos drive demand for loans and homes, he said.
