Interview at One Newsroom

Yesterday, I was on live TV interview in the program, "One Newsroom" hosted by Ms. Shawn Yao and Mr. Charles Lejano. This is one of the programs of One News at Cignal TV channels 8 and 250.

It was supposed to be a short interview on economic issues, about 5 minutes, but we expanded a bit and lasted for nearly 10 minutes.

These were my guide notes, the numbers I tried to remember and discussed.

1. On GDP growth: We are not maintaining the growth momentum, only economy in East Asia with decelerating growth from 2016 to 2019 Q1.

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/low-growth-high-taxes-as-election-issue/

2. On inflation: We are the inflation valedictorian in East Asia, highest rate in 2018 (5.2%, 2^nd highest was Vietnam with 3.5%) and 2019 ytd (3.5%, 2^nd highest are VN and ID with 2.7%).

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/inflation-target-below-2-is-possible/

3. On taxes: We have high PIT, CIT, VAT compared to most East Asian economies. TRABAHO bill among the contributors for low growth in private investments.

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/the-global-taxpayers-conference/

4. On employment: April 2019 indeed better than April 2018 labor data but they are not good comparison years, better compare election periods April 2016 vs April 2019, former has more job generation.

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/more-employment-and-labor-productivity/

5. On oil prices: We expect low world oil prices, stable and lower domestic prices but TRAIN law’s oil tax hikes distorted prices upwards.

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/smart-energy-use-more-conventional-sources/

6. On power shortage: We lack power capacity + we have many old, ageing power plants. Variable renewables wind-solar cannot be relied for large-scale electricity demand because these are intermittent, weather-dependent energy sources.

Reference: https://www.bworldonline.com/power-shortage-as-election-issue/

Thanks to Madeline Lacson of One News for inviting me.