TAG: Economy
The results of the latest OBG Business Barometer: Philippines CEO Survey shed light on how President Rodrigo Duterte’s tax reform packages have been received by the business community. Effective since January 1, 2018, the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) programme has exempted many low-wage workers from income tax but was also partly blamed for causing inflationary pressures that year. Of the almost 100 C-suite executives that were surveyed, some 35% said TRAIN had affected local business conditions in a negative way, 33% gave a neutral response, 29% responded that it had a positive impact and 1% opted for very positive.
International institutions expect 2019 to be a somewhat difficult year for Oman’s economy – back in April the World Bank said it anticipated GDP expansion of 1.2% for the sultanate in 2019, while in July the IMF revised its 2019 growth forecast to 0.3%, down from the 1.1% it had originally forecast. These sluggish outlooks have their origins in the crash in oil prices from mid-2014, from which the country – and indeed the region – has still not fully recovered.