Apocalyse Now: Regime of High Oil and Food Prices

[judoman]

isa pa po sa signs yung pag nagpataasan mga tao ng building sa desert. nasa bible daw po yun. nung nagpataas yung dubai, sumama na rin sa pataasan ng building yung saudi at kuwait.

[badsekktor]

dark ages are here again.....

[uls]

Oil price has peaked.

US dollar has bottomed.

money is moving out of commodities.

bold statements ba?

hehe

[jpdm]

eto pa.....

Manila Standard
June 2, 2008
Oil firms want P11 more per liter of gas this month By Alena Mae S. Flores and Roderick dela Cruz


DESPITE a P1.50 price increase over the weekend, oil companies say they still have to raise prices by as much as P11 a liter this month alone as they struggle to recover their costs amid skyrocketing world oil prices.
Flying V chairman Ramon Villavicencio said the oil companies had no choice but to go ahead with the increase to offset rising import costs. The average price of Dubai crude, the benchmark that the oil companies used, averaged $119.46 a barrel in May, or $16 more than the average price in April, he said.
Imported gasoline also rose by about $12 while diesel increased by $18 a barrel over April’s average level, he said.
“This is the largest single month increase ever for Dubai,” Petron Corp. said in a statement.
As of May 30, imported gasoline from the region has averaged $130.92 a barrel from the April average of $118.08 a barrel and the March average of $109.78 a barrel.
Oil broke through $135 a barrel for the first time in May, following unexpected drops in US crude and gasoline stocks in a tight market, dealers said.
At $135 a barrel, Villavicencio said, an extra P3 a liter should be added [to the pump price] “if there is no government support and if everything stays put,” placing the acceptable pump price at P63 a liter.
With the latest price increase of P1.50 a liter, unleaded gasoline now average P51.83 to P54.07 a liter, diesel at P44.30 to P46.97 a liter, and kerosene at P48.65 to P52.30 a liter.
The contract price of cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas, in the world market also went up to $907.50 a metric ton from $812 in April. This translates into an increase of P3.30 a kilogram, or P36.30 per 11-kg tank.
The LPG Marketers Association implemented a one-time increase of P2.50 to P3 a kilogram during the weekend, but oil firms like Petron implemented a staggered increase of P1 a kg to ease the impact to the consuming public.
Cooking gas now retails at P593 to P639 per 11-kilo cylinder. Prices of petroleum products vary depending on the station, brand and market forces.
Oil firms say there no relief may be in sight except if world oil prices go down this month. They have raised gasoline and diesel prices 13 times since January for a total of P9 for gasoline and P8 for diesel.
With gas and oil prices setting records daily, many international analysts wonder whether anything can stop prices from rising further.
“We are faced with a regime of high oil prices,” Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said.
“This is the reality, and we should brace ourselves for adjustments in local pump prices. The benefits of the programs we are implementing to attain energy independence will not be immediately felt, since most interventions in the energy sector are medium- or long-term in nature.”
Filipino consumers have been trying to coupe with high prices by shifting their expenses to food and cutting back on clothing, beverages and other non-essentials.
Data from the national income accounts show food expenditures rose 13 percent in the first quarter, with food spending widening to 45 percent from 44.1 percent.
The share of other items in the personal expenditures index shrank during the period, with the exception of transportation and communication including cell phone texting, whose share increased from 11.1 percent to 11.9 percent.
Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos earlier admitted that high oil and food prices affected domestic spending in the quarter.
Based on constant 1985 prices, consumer spending grew 5.1 percent in the first quarter, slower than the 5.9-percent growth posted a year ago.
National Statistical Coordination Board secretary general Romulo Virola said the economy had succumbed to rising oil prices, the slowdown in the US economy and the negative effects of a strong peso.
But the gross national product expanded by 7.3 percent in the first quarter on account of the 30.3-percent growth in net factor income from abroad, or money spent by Filipino individuals and companies abroad.

[XUV-AT2002]

Second semester view of pinas

1. Motor bikes dominating the roads
2. EDSA travel time cut to half due to decreasing number of private & public vehicles
3. Bus and jeepneys puno na palagi mahirap sumakay pati sa MRT/LRT
4. Marami na ang mag lalakad to move from one point to another
5. Malls shorten na ang operating time
6. Increasing unemployment
7. Kilos protesta sa kalye
8. Increasing crime against property with collateral damage sa person
9. Kalamidad
10.Gutom

Pero marami pa rin ang di na wawalan ng Hope. Thank God!

[jpdm]

Manila Times
Angelo Reyes gags oil firms on price hikes
June 5, 2008
Euan Paolo C. Anonuevo,


Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes ordered oil companies to desist from disclosing to media future fuel and cooking-gas price hikes.
During a stakeholders’ meeting Wednesday organized by the Department of Energy, Reyes said the oil firms should stop making early announcements on price increases so as not to cause undue panic and anxiety on consumers.
“It will not serve anybody any good if they will make announcements based on their own projections,” he added.
Reyes’ order came about after media clarified whether his earlier remarks lambasting Arnel Ty, head of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association, during the meeting meant a stop to early price-increase announcements.
The Energy chief had castigated Ty for being too open to media about the group’s future price adjustments—a practice not common among larger oil firms—such as the P3.50 per kilogram increase that the marketers association tagged on its liquefied petroleum gas products a week ago.
The cooking-gas retailers’ adjustment was announced much early on while big oil companies made their own public announcements only a few hours before implementing their own price hikes.
In front of media, transport groups and officials of the government and oil firms, Reyes told Ty that he “should not speak for everybody” and that his group should instead be “competing with each other [in the group].”
He said the marketers’ association is “increasing prices ahead of everybody” and is also in the forefront when cooking-gas prices go down just to look good in public.
But Ty said his group’s cooking-gas price for its 11-kilogram cylinders, which costs about P610 each, is not enough to influence prices as it is still the lowest in the industry.
Under the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, oil firms are allowed to automatically increase their pump prices but are not compelled to announce such move to the public.
But the Energy department requires oil companies to inform the department within one day, but not less than six hours, of any move to increase prices and any public announcements related to this.
Despite the public berating, Ty later told media that his group will comply with the Energy secretary’s order but stood by the legality of the group’s price adjustments, which he said can be attested to by their supplier, Liquigaz Philippines Corp.
“The [Energy department] knows best. We will just follow it first,” he said.
Ty added that the marketers association will also be attending future meetings organized by the department to come up with a system for making announcements on price adjustments.
Other oil company officials present during the industry meeting deferred to Reyes’ order, saying that making early disclosures on price adjustments may lead to hoarding of petroleum products.
Rate adjustments ‘reasonable’
Ironically, while Reyes questioned the Ty group’s price adjustments, a report released during the meeting by Peter Lee U, University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics dean, found that price adjustments implemented by the oil firms are “reasonable.”
The study, which was commissioned by the Energy department for a pittance, however, focused only on Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.’s price adjustments from December 2006 to November 2007. The two firms represent 70 percent of the total petroleum market in the country.
“Oil price increases have been reasonable. They were not out of line and are consistent with what they are saying that they have under-recoveries,” Lee U said.
He added that while many analysts are saying that oil prices may continue to stay at high levels abroad, the best protection government can offer to consumers is to have the petroleum industry be more open to new players to spur competition.
“The country needs a credible competition policy with an enforcement agency,” Lee U said.

pataas pa rin....

[jpdm]

Philippine Star
Business
Consumer confidence in economy drops – survey
By Ted P. Torres
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Filipino consumers have turned less confident on the country’s economy, mirroring a global plunge in consumer optimism, new results from a Nielsen survey showed.
Nielsen managing director Benedicto L. Cid told a press briefing yesterday that the drop reflects less optimism in terms of the economy, job prospects, personal finance and spending.
The survey, conducted from April 21 to May 6 this year, covered an online poll of 28,253 respondents in 48 countries from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East.
There were about 500 respondents from the Philippines.
Based on survey results, consumer confidence in the Philippines dropped nine points to an index of 99, still higher than the global average of 88.
The worldwide average, Cid said, fell eight points – the biggest decline in three years – as 39 out of the 48 countries registered negative feedback toward economic growth.
The most optimistic people are from Norway, India and Indonesia while the most pessimistic ones are from Japan, Korea and Poland. The Philippines was ranked somewhere in the middle.
Majority of the respondents believed that their respective economies are in recession, expressing the opinion that the economies of the United States and Europe were responsible for the global slowdown.
On a bright note, Filiipinos were ranked second highest next to the Singaporeans in terms of the tendency to save on extra cash, with 57 percent of respondents saying they were inclined to save spare cash.
This, however, was a substantial drop from 65 percent in the same survey two years earlier.
But Cid noted that there was an increasing number of Filipinos prepared to put money into mutual funds and stocks.
In addition, 24 percent of Filipinos surveyed were willing to spend on vacation on holidays against a higher 31 percent in 2006.
Globally, the economy remains the biggest concern but the Philippine survey shows that job security, and work/life balance are the prime considerations of respondents.
The survey results also indicate that Filipinos tend to want to pay their debts, credit cards and loans if they have extra cash over home entertainment.
Cid also commented that Filipinos are more concerned about unemployment, inflation, debts and political instability over the general economy, health, environment and retirement.

May positive effect pala...tapos na ang gastador days ng mga Pinoy...at magbabayad na ng utang..

[jpdm]

Business Mirror
June 5, 2008
by Cai Ordinario

Rich also feeling the pinch...

IN these times of ever-rising prices of fuel, the rich are proving to be like the rest of ordinary folk, as even middle- and upper-class families begin to think twice before replacing a three-year- old car...............



If this persists, the auto industry may be in trouble, and further cause the country’s economic growth to slow down as consumers tend to shy away from purchasing big-ticket items.

naku...bababa sales ng auto...unless may lalabas na mura at super tipid sa gas na kotse....

[jpdm]

Dapat sa Pinas rin!

Yung di kayang bumili ng bago at gumamit nglumang jeepney, AUV at kotse sa Pinas dapat mag-HHO at Neooil... para less pollution, menos gastos at high fuel mileage.... good for the environment pa...


P

hilippine Daily Inquirer
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 07:47:00 06/05/2008

Cash, bikes, bus passes offered for Canada's gas-guzzlers


OTTAWA -- Canada launched an incentive program on Wednesday to rid its roads of old gas-guzzling cars and trucks, urging citizens to trade them in for free bicycles, bus passes, or $300 cash.
The National Vehicle Scrappage Program will offer these incentives to people who retire their 1995 or older model vehicles, and hopefully turn to more environmentally-friendly transportation, the government said.
"We know Canadians want to do their part to help clean up the air we breathe," Environment Minister John Baird said in a statement.
"That's why we are launching a national program to get Canadians's smog-causing gas-guzzlers off the road."
Of the 18 million cars and trucks on Canada's roads, about five million were manufactured before 1996, when new tougher emissions standards were introduced.
These pre-1996 models produce about 19 times more air pollutants than newer cars and trucks, said Baird.
And although they make up less than one-third of vehicles on the road, older cars generate as much as two-thirds of the smog-forming pollutants caused by personal vehicle use, he said.
The government has committed $92 million (Canadian, US) over four years to implement the program, which is to be run by a national not-for-profit organization.
A rebate on the purchase of a new car or a membership in a car-sharing program will also be offered as incentives.

[uls]

this whole global PRICE INSTABILITY mess was caused by the weak USD.
(which was caused by the rate cuts which was caused by the credit crisis which was caused by the collapse of the US housing boom)

The USD is the world's reserve currency.

Trillions of dollars of savings belonging to private individuals, companies, and governments are in danger of becoming toilet paper.

When the value of your savings start to diminish very quickly, you would panic.

There was panic... on a global scale!

Anyone with substantial dollar holdings went out looking for a hedge.

Everyone started to buy gold... we all know what happened to gold, right?

They also turned their attention to other commodities like oil and grains...
we also know very well what happened to food and fuel prices, right?

The tremendous rush to hedge against the falling dollar pushed up prices of commodities very high and very fast.

This what happens when u screw with the world's reserve currency.