⌛ Living in the Phil. is getting more expensive

Living in Phil...

Rhoody hit it absolutely right. The Bush administration has already been called one of the worst Presidency's in US history, and that is saying alot. Unfortunately, no one is disagreeing with that statement.

Bush's ideas of "the US doing right" has gotten the country into a trillion dollar deficit. The war in Iraq costs tens of billions of dollars a year to run. Many people don't realize it, but the Iraq war has lasted 1.5 times longer already than World War II did, and with no end in sight.

Because of this government, the people of the United States must take the "slings and arrows" from every country, race, and group in the world. Remember, it's not the popular vote that elects a President, but the electoral college. So actually, if not one person voted in the election, the President would be elected. The peoples vote actually means nothing. It all boils down to party ties, back scratching, and the good ole boy network.

With Bush in the office, there literally is no forseeable conclusion to the devaluation of the dollar, the price of oil, the war on terror, or a smattering of hope for world peace. If it was up to Bush, we would already have bombed Iran and North Korea.

Anyway, I hope we can go another year, and maybe get someone in who doesn't feel he has to be "President of the World", and not just the U.S.

2 blackbelts

 

Actually the pound - peso rate is dictated by the $-peso rate. So, assuming the £-$ rate is static, then if the $ declines against the peso, so will the £. And at present the £, having gained a lot against the $ in the last year or two, is now declining against the $. (Currently about $1.95 to the £ compared with a peak of around $2.11.)

Tom

 

make a online research... the statistics are availble... the dollar went down big time , then the pound followed by the Euro... pound and Euro is 15-20% down the last 24 month.... to the Peso

Rhoody

 

But before anyone rushes to change all their western currency into pesos, consider the long term history. When I first visited the philippines in 1980 it was 7P to the aussie $. In 1986 it was 13P to the dollar. in 2000 it was 25P to the A$ and now it is over 35P. Unless the Philippine Government gets its act together and modernises the economy (like Korea for example), I belive the long term outlook for the peso is grim.

The greenback is down due to the mortgage crisis and the fed reserve reductions in interest rates to avoid a recession. They have also had the rare occurrence of house prices going down. Most economists are predicting it will level out mid-year and the greenback will recover towards the end of 2008

 

Yes, long term the peso doesn't look wonderful. Think it'll have a good year, maybe even two...before it resumes it's normal course. Foreign currency inflows are very strong, investment activity reasonably buoyant. Wouldn't call it a little tiger, but it'll pretend for a while....Enjoy it while it lasts...

USD looks stuffed...needs a year or two of another government to turn it around...at a minimum..

 

Historically, the US economy goes through an up-down cycle about every 10 years. These regular "adjustment" periods were actually good for the overall stability of the economy. Unfortunately, during the past 10 years we've had more than one major "adjustment" the current one being especially bad. The US economy will recover and most Americans will not be much worse for the wear. The real tragedy is the effect it has on people in developing countries around the world. Not only is this the fault of the US government but of the IMF and the World Bank also whose leadership is selected by the only country with de-facto veto power; the US. As long as the global economy is tied to the dollar this condition will not change. Switching to the Euro may help but will be a temporary solution.
The ASEAN countries attempted to create their own trade currency which would, in theory, lead to a much more stable economic environment and showed great promise. Of course, that was shot down by "you know who".
Since the evidence is showing the gradual shift of economic power from west to east perhaps it's time to try again.

 

Oh yeah. By my calculations, my projected monthly cost of living in the Philippines (not including housing) has increased US$124. This reflects the decrease of the dollar from Php52 to Php40.

 

We have doubts as of now and shitting ourselves as pounds decrease its value against pesos by 20%. The house prices in the Uk has decreased plus the share prices lowers its value too. We might just wait til the pounds/dollars recover to do the house project we are planning to build. Might take a good 2 years or maybe more. My dreams shattered and my family is also affected of the high commodity prices in the Phils. :(

 

IMHO The powers that be in the states intend on crashing the dollar, defaulting, and than introducing the Amero and the NAU as the solution out.

I bet I'm right, any takers? (peso bets only)

 

Inflation and exchange rates

Seems a bit curious to me, that everybody have discussed only the exchange rates. There is also quite a lot of inflation going on in the Philippines and elsewhere with e.g. petrol prices almost doubling in the last 4 years, even with the benefit of the stronger peso. Food prices are also beginning to skyrocket now - as an example chicken is up form 95 peso / kg in 2004 to 130 peso / kg currently.

Curiously enough, most governments in world have defined, that rising prices of fuel and food is not to be considered as inflation, since it is usually only temporary. Really? In this instance "temporary" seems to be quite a long time horizon, and with the tremendously high growth rates of the chinese and indian economy, I dought the situation will change significantly anytime soon.

Skyrocketing commodity prices have actually benefited the Philippine economy the last 4 years, but I would guess that it has also enlarged the gap between rich and poor.

People owning the sugarcane fields in Negros have earned tons of money due to the high prices of sugar, but I dought if the salary of most regular people have been able to more than just keep up with the rising cost of living caused by the explosion in fuel, food and other commodity prices.

As for those of us, who rely on income in foreign currency, it has been a dubble whammy since early 2005, when the peso started to strengthen against most currencys after a long period of decline.

Where this strengthening will stop, I have no idea, but it must be remembered, that as recently as 2002 the peso was still quite a lot stronger vs. e.g. the euro than it is now. So to some extend it has just come back to what might be considered a more normal value.

Unfortunatly this strengtening of the peso seems to have had no moderating effect whatsoever on the prices of imported goods, except for oil products. Instead importers or producers have apparently just increased their profit margins. The result is, that quite a few imported products are now more expensive in the Philippines than they are in Denmark, even though the VAT rate is less than half of the danish rate, and the salary of sales personel much much lower.

This is puzzling to say the least, and one can only hope, that it is a temporary phenomenon, before competition bring prices on imported goods down, where they should be given the much stronger value of the peso.