Philippine economy grows 5.5% annually in second quarter
Economists in a Reuters poll had expected growth of 5.4 per cent.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew 1.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter, compared to the median forecast of 1.3 per cent in a Reuters poll of economists.
"With this performance, we maintain our place among the fastest growing economies in emerging Asia," Philippine Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told a press conference.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
I made an investment mistake. How do I recover from it?
Have you ever made an investing mistake, one that you really regretted? One of my earliest and most painful investing lessons was when I bought into SingPost in 2015. I thought the company had solid fundamentals and growth potential, based on what my broker told me. He urged me to buy, saying it was such a no-brainer move that he had already persuaded his parents to invest in it as well. At around S$2 (US$1.55) a share, he made it sound like a steal. But shortly afterwards, the stock kept sliding. Today, it's worth around S$0.60, which is a staggering 70 per cent loss from when I first bought into it. Maybe you've been in the same boat as me. Perhaps you didn't act decisively enough in the recent market crash, and you're kicking yourself now when you see stocks fly and the indexes hitting new all-time highs. Or maybe you bought into a stock that tanked overnight or went all-in on a cryptocurrency project that collapsed overnight. Now you're staring at the red numbers in your portfolio, wondering what went wrong and asking yourself: "How do I bounce back from this?" LEARNING FROM INVESTMENT LOSSES The sinking feeling of sadness, frustration and despair when you lose money can be traumatising, but here's the truth you need to hear: no investor, no matter how experienced, has a 100 per cent win rate anyway. We've all made mistakes. When it comes to investing, those mistakes can be particularly painful, not just because it is our money on the line. Making the wrong investment choices can also hurt our confidence and make us question our beliefs in our own decision-making. Just ask the 700 investors who bought into a bogus cryptocurrency mining investment here, or the 947 investors who fell for the fraudulent nickel investment scheme – including venture capitalists and private bankers. But what matters from here is not harping on the mistake; instead, it is what you do next. With my SingPost experience, I took great pains to ask myself: "What is the lesson to be learnt here?" Reflecting deeply on this question, I realised that I had put too much trust in "stock tips" from professionals and failed to do my own in-depth research and analysis before I made a decision. I learnt that I had to pay more attention to competitors in the same space, because SingPost clearly was no match for them. I also realised that just because someone is licensed as a professional, doesn't mean that they can't get it wrong sometimes. The lessons I learnt from this mistake, as well as others I've made over the years, have helped me to become a better investor over time. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST In the aftermath of an investment gone wrong, it's tempting to slip into a downward spiral of regret and beat ourselves up for losing money. In trying to make sense of things, we can end up obsessing over all the "what ifs". We think over and over: "Why did I trust that advice? Why didn't I exit sooner? How could I be so foolish?" But hindsight is always 20-20. There's no point in always looking in the rear view mirror – we have to focus on the road ahead in order to keep moving forward. Our success will depend on our ability to invest for the future, while adapting and charting a new course of action whenever a failure occurs. That's why the far more productive approach is to extract the lessons from the losses. What does it reveal about ourselves as investors? Does it reveal biases and assumptions we didn't know we had, for instance? Does it show any gaps in our thinking and reasoning? In the wake of an investing mistake, here are some questions I now focus on: Was this a failure in due diligence? Did I blindly follow someone else's advice without doing my own homework? Was this something I could have predicted ahead of time, with the knowledge and information I had? There are some investment losses that can only be attributed to bad luck or a black swan event that no one can predict. For these scenarios, there is no point in beating yourself up over it. But when the loss occurred because of a gap in our process, then the onus is on us to learn to correct it. YOU ONLY NEED A FEW BIG WINNERS Remember: no one has a perfect track record in investing. Not American hedge fund manager Ray Dalio. Not investment fund founder Cathie Wood. Not even Warren Buffett. The investing legend has famously admitted to some big blunders, such as buying Dexter Shoe Company with Berkshire Hathaway shares, or losing hundreds of millions from holding onto computer giant IBM for too long, believing it would be able to reinvent itself. Just like us, the greatest investors in the world have taken hits to their portfolio. But what sets them apart is their ability to learn, adapt and stay in the game. Here's a secret: what matters isn't avoiding mistakes entirely but ensuring that your winners more than make up for your losers. Even if a few of our investing positions go to zero, we still have other positions in our portfolio. And the gains from these other counters can often overshadow the losses incurred by the rest. This was my own experience, as I watched stocks I own – like iFast, DBS and Meta – grow into multi-baggers over time. These multi-baggers are investments that multiply in value, delivering returns of two times, five times, or even 10 times our original capital. They're the outliers in our portfolio that can more than make up for past mistakes, and can significantly accelerate our wealth when held with conviction over the long term. I've owned iFast since it was S$1 a share, and DBS at under S$14. Today, they've increased in value by more than 800 per cent and 300 per cent respectively – and are still growing as we speak. These alone more than make up for what I lost with SingPost and other mistakes. STAY IN THE GAME This is the beauty of investing: your downside is capped, but your upside knows no bounds. If you invest S$1,000 in a company and it fails, you lose S$1,000. But if you invest S$1,000 in the next Apple, Nvidia or Tesla while it is still undervalued – something with the potential to grow five or 10 times bigger over time – that single investment can not only cover multiple losing counters but also put you ahead. That's why I choose to focus on fundamentally strong companies, buying into them when the market is pessimistic or irrational. And I don't lose sight of this even when luck turns against me, or when I get things wrong sometimes. At the end of the day, what matters is your entire investment portfolio rather than obsessing over the outcome of each individual position. So as Idina Menzel sings: "Let it go". Let your losers go, but not the lessons. Double down on your research. Look for opportunities. And keep your emotions in check. Investing isn't about getting it right every single time. It is about staying in the game, learning as you go, and making better and better plays as you grow. Not every loss is our fault. But if we don't take every opportunity to learn, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Straits Times
Weigh in on Sydney Sweeney or run the world? Trump, for better or worse, attempts it all
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the roof of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo From firing people to promoting jeans, calling for peace deals or the renaming of a sports team, President Donald Trump keeps a lot on his proverbial to-do list. Much of it is unrelated to running the country. More than six months into his second term as U.S. commander-in-chief, Trump, a former New York businessman and reality television host, has applied a hands-on management style and producer-like attitude toward governing, relying largely on his own instincts for decisions large and small. Using the tools of social media and a propensity for bullying, Trump personally wades into issues inside and outside the federal government to get his way. He harangues company executives to invest in America and uses trade deals as leverage over foreign leaders to end conflicts. Last week he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over unproven allegations she falsified figures that he didn't like. This week he called for the head of Intel to step down over ties with China, and the company's stock fell. In recent months he has pressed the Washington Commanders football team to change its name back to the Redskins, forced universities to pay huge amounts to the federal government, boosted retailer American Eagle Outfitters' shares with a compliment about a controversial jeans commercial featuring actor Sydney Sweeney and attempted to shore up Republican power by pushing for political redistricting in Texas. Trump's style, which can confound both his friends and his foes, is dramatically different from his more traditional predecessors. It has earned him condemnation for being caustic and praise for being effective at getting what he wants. "While he delves into topics that are certainly distractions relative to the big business of leading the world's greatest nation, it can also be said that past presidents have excessively deferred to the bureaucracy and failed to deliver the change their voters expected," said Carlos Curbelo, a Republican former congressman from Florida. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 4 men arrested after police search operation in forested area near Rail Corridor Singapore SAF regular serviceman dies after being found unconscious at Hendon Camp swimming pool: Mindef World Three wounded in shooting in New York's Times Square Singapore Driver taken to hospital after car hits lamp post in Orchard Road Singapore Urban farming, robots, AI exhibitions: Public invited to share ideas for new Science Centre Asia 2 Malaysian tourists critically injured after being set on fire in Bangkok World Trump and Putin to meet on Aug 15 in Alaska Life The crypto bros are back: 'The hubris never really left' "Trump views himself more as the CEO of the U.S.A. than as president," Curbelo added. "It's good for decision making and challenging for the constitutional order which made our country the world's greatest economic and military force." Trump has taken on academia, the legal world, media companies, athletics, the federal bureaucracy and more, all while retooling the world economy with tariffs, cracking down on immigration flows, upending relations with allies and putting his stamp on American culture. Though he has a team of advisers, the president frequently follows his own counsel, making policy decisions and then announcing them himself, ramifications aside. "I think what a lot of people miss about Trump is he's the marketer-in-chief," said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist with ties to the White House. "Not only is he his own best press secretary, he's also his own best chief-of-staff." A POTUS WHO 'CAN'T FOCUS' Critics question why Trump gets bogged down in issues that are secondary to his goals of strengthening the U.S. economy, for example, or achieving a peace deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "He's commenting one moment on ... Putin and tariffs and all that's happening in the world and the next moment he's talking about, oh, Sydney Sweeney, and all these other issues that are completely unrelated to being president of the United States," said Charlie Dent, a Republican former congressman from Pennsylvania. "He simply can't focus." The White House said Trump is using his skills to deliver on policy priorities. 'President Trump's leadership style can be summed up plainly as decisive and commanding," said White House spokesman Harrison Fields. Trump also employs a talent to distract when facing difficulty. Though that super power has largely eluded him with the controversy over sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Department of Justice's refusal to release files related to the disgraced financier's case, Trump's broad ability to change the subject and dominate the news cycle has stupefied his opponents for years. "His leadership style is much closer to that of an executive producer, and the executive producer who has a really big picture understanding of the audience," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. "I think he trusts his instincts about the audience over anybody else, and that's why you see him oftentimes, you know, managing his own policy portfolio." Trump, though not a stickler for detail on all things policy-related, does get into the weeds on things he cares about, both cultural and political, including redecorating the Oval Office with gold, paving over the Rose Garden and building a new ballroom on the White House grounds. On Tuesday, reporters bantered with the president while he walked on the roof of the White House press room, surveying the grounds for what he said were more ways to spend his money. The White House said Trump and other donors plan to pay for the $200 million ballroom project, which is slated to be finished before his second term concludes. "I think narcissists do get bogged down in details because they think that everything is a reflection of them," said Republican strategist Rina Shah. "When he decides to focus on the minutia, he's forgetting about the bigger picture. And that's kind of a disservice to the office." Where critics see such disservice, the White House sees results. On the eve of presiding over a U.S.-brokered peace framework between Azerbaijan and Armenia this week, Trump took to social media to tout his involvement: 'Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to 'TRUMP.'" REUTERS
Independent Singapore
10 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Maid who endured poor working conditions says no to contract renewal after employer refused pay raise, denied vacation leave, and changed rest days
SINGAPORE: Fed up with her poor working conditions and stagnant pay, a domestic helper shared on social media that she's decided not to renew her contract with her employers. In an anonymous post on the Direct Hire Transfer Singapore Maid/Domestic Helper Facebook group, she explained that throughout her two years of employment, she had to pay for all her personal necessities, including toiletries such as shampoo, shower gel, and toothpaste, using her own money. Adding to her challenges, the helper said she often had to buy her own food, particularly fruits, fish, and vegetables, as the family generally provided only one proper meal per day, which was dinner. Beyond the lack of support for basic needs, the helper said that the extensive level of surveillance in the household made her feel deeply uncomfortable and intruded upon. According to her, the employer had installed '10 CCTV cameras' throughout the home, including one in her bedroom, and placed a tracker on her house key that was connected to their mobile phones. The final breaking point, however, came when her employer recently informed her that if she chose to continue working for them, she would not be given a pay raise, would be denied a one-month vacation leave (which she had requested), and that her off days would be changed. 'My day off, they said they would allow me to have two days off a month, but only on weekdays, not on weekends, which I don't like,' she wrote. 'Like, hello, I will go out alone, so it feels lonely because my friends' day off is only on Sundays. My previous contract gave me one day off a month, and it was on a Sunday, but then it suddenly changed.' 'I hope you find an employer who values and respects you as a person.' Her story drew support from other domestic workers online, many of whom said they could relate to her experience. Some encouraged her to look for an employer who would treat her with more respect and care. 'You're right to prioritise your own needs and well-being. It doesn't sound like your employer was treating you with the respect and care that you deserve,' one wrote. 'You're taking a big step by standing up for yourself and choosing to look for a new opportunity. I hope you find an employer who values and respects you as a person. You deserve it!' 'Good decision, sister..a lot of employers here [are like that] actually,' another commented. 'I hope you feel better after sharing your feelings. Since you already made up your mind not to renew, then no need to dwell too much on it. Let go and move on,' a third added. Are employers obligated to give their helpers a pay raise? Employers are not legally required to increase their helpers' wages. However, the Ministry of Manpower encourages employers to do so as a way to recognise and reward their helpers' good performance and dedication. MOM also recommends offering a 'contract gratuity,' which is a bonus paid at the end of the contract, to motivate helpers to maintain or improve their work. Read also: Maid asks if she was wrong to request S$10k loan in exchange for renewing contract
