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The Philippines and Canada have concluded negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), setting the stage for expanded market access, greater investment flows and new opportunities for exporters, service providers and small businesses.

Southeast Asia needs an estimated USD7.1 trillion in infrastructure investment through 2040, but a shortage of commercially viable projects is preventing governments from mobilizing enough private capital to meet the region’s growing needs, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda said Saturday.

If the past week's tea leaves had a message, it was this: ay, naku. The economy served up a one-two punch of sluggish growth and runaway prices, then appeared to ask whether we wanted seconds. Monday brought third-quarter GDP growth of 2.1 percent, down from 2.4 percent in the previous quarter and below the 2.8 percent consensus forecast. That marked five consecutive quarters of slowing growth and the weakest performance since the pandemic. October inflation, meanwhile, averaged 7.8 percent. Some wanted the monetary authorities to wield a bigger stick through a jumbo rate hike. Tame prices without choking an already parched economy? Sige, good luck. With stocks around 5,600 and the peso near P64 to the dollar, even sharply cheaper gasoline felt less like salvation than a promo expiring next week.

The shifting global trade landscape, driven by higher US tariffs and tensions between Washington and Beijing, presents ASEAN with an opportunity to attract investment and strengthen its role in global supply chains, but countries must first make it easier for businesses to operate across borders, Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.