Despite delays due to budget cuts, the World Bank has lauded the implementation of its one-decade-old financing for a local community poverty-reduction program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Referring to its loans for the DSWD's National Community-Driven Development...
The International Finance Corp. (IFC) has green-lit a loan package for Filipino firm Asialink Finance Corp. (AFC) to help boost small business lending in the Philippines. The private-sector lending arm of the World Bank Group (WBG) disclosed on Friday, Oct. 11, that the senior loan financing...
The World Bank has cited progress in the Department of Agriculture's (DA) rural development project scale-up, for which the Philippines borrowed $600 million or over P34 billion last year. "The overall project's initial implementation performance is considered satisfactory. Implementation and...
The World Bank expects the Philippine economy to grow by an average of six percent in the next three years — one of the fastest rates in the region, despite challenges to jobs arising from new technologies like robots and artificial intelligence (AI). In its East Asia and the Pacific...
With about three-fourths of loan proceeds reaching billions of pesos still unspent just months before they expire, the Philippines wants to extend for two more years the financing for a delayed major flood control project in Metro Manila, the country's business and commercial hub that's also the...
Businesses in the Philippines enjoy operating in a strong regulatory environment but are most bogged down by inefficient government support services, the World Bank's new Business Ready report launched on Oct. 3 showed. In the inaugural report that assessed business climate in its pilot 50...
The Marcos Jr. administration will borrow $509.24 million (about P28.7 billion) from the World Bank to enhance health services in rural areas. World Bank documents showed that the Washington-based multilateral lender's board is expected to approve the Philippines Health System Resilience Project on...
The Philippine government is seeking a one-year extension and partial reallocation of a World Bank loan that has been partly funding the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) since 2021. A World Bank restructuring paper showed that the Department of Finance (DOF) on Sept. 17 requested the...
Downward interest rates and bank reserves would bolster loans to productive economic sectors in the Philippines, according to the World Bank. "Along with lower inflation, the reductions in the real interest rate and lower reserve requirements could spur demand for credit in the near term by...
Nearly three-fourths of the loan for a flood control project in Metro Manila that the World Bank extended to the Philippines seven years ago remained unspent even as this financing is scheduled to end before yearend. A Sept. 30 implementation status and results report seen by Manila Bulletin...
The World Bank is dangling a new $2.5-billion financing program to push East Asian and Pacific countries towards renewable energy (RE) use. The Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition Program would "contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 60 million tons over its lifetime while...
Women-led and women-owned business incubator Villgro Philippines has secured a financial grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its gender and climate initiatives. While USAID did not disclose the grant amount, the aid agency said in a Sept. 23 statement that...
