Media powerhouse NET25 has closely monitored a week in which its business desk looked outward, from a meeting of APEC finance ministers to a walkout at the IMF, and from rising oil prices to curfews in various French cities.
For the Filipino household, none of these is really that far away. Oil price increases reach jeepney fares within a week, and a curfew in Paris reaches the OFW working there and the family waiting for remittance back home. In short, the world economy is a household matter.
Further on the global stage, APEC finance ministers agreed to boost policy coordination to address various global economic developments. APEC counts the Philippines among its members.
Days earlier, nearly a dozen delegations walked out of the IMF steering committee in Bangkok when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov spoke, a sign that the divisions since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine still keep the committee from a consensus statement. Among those that walked out were Nordic and Baltic states.
The portal carried the other side as well, with US Treasury Undersecretary Erin Browne saying that Washington, as G20 chair, supports Russia’s presence at the table.
On oil, prices rose on October 21 as tensions in the Middle East raised supply concerns. At home, the NET25 news portal reported that Pasang Masda, one of the country’s biggest transport groups, will seek another Php 1 increase in jeepney fares. Read together, the two stories tell the Pinoy commuter what the coming weeks may cost.
In Europe, a Reuters explainer carried by the portal laid out France’s worst unrest in years, which began over teacher shortages in the working-class suburbs north of Paris and grew into a protest over the cost of living.
The French government mobilized 60,000 officers, 2,500 people were in custody and 149 detained for trial, partial curfews covered Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nice and Marseille, and insurers promised payouts for more than 3,000 damaged shops.
The explainer followed the money as well: a deficit of 5.4 percent of output this year against a target of 5.0 percent next year, a 10-year bond yield of 4.96 percent, and protests spreading to Italy, Albania, Spain and Portugal. European governments advised their citizens to avoid large crowds, advice that applies to the Filipinos working in those cities as well.
Of the week’s pieces, the France explainer did the most for the reader, because it told the Filipino not only what happened on the streets but what it will cost the French treasury and, through the euro, the remittance sent home.
NET25 always makes a conscious effort to report the world economy for the salaried Filipino rather than for the trader, posting the wire’s account the same day with full credit and pairing it with the domestic story it touches. This is what makes the portal’s business page useful to the family that pays the fares and prices these decisions produce.
As always, these stories are free to read anytime, anywhere on the NET25.com portal and are carried on Mata ng Agila and “Open for Business” on Digital Free TV Channel 28 and Analog Free TV Channel 25 as well.
NET25’s commitment to the Filipino household continues through business news that follows the world economy from the ministers’ table to the jeepney fare and the OFW’s street. The “alternative mainstream” media giant keeps watch over the world’s money so that the Filipino family can plan and prepare.
