By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Despite the economic challenges that the United Kingdom faces, British Chamber of Commerce Philippines Executive Director and Trustee Chris Nelson revealed in a TV interview that there are still many British companies that set their eyes on the Philippines in terms of investment, expansion of operations and looking at the new market.
Notwithstanding the fact that the UK economy is clearly under pressure. With the budget pressures on consumers, business closures, and winter energy bills that are being affected by the UK inflation rate of about 11 percent.
“Prime Minister Sunak is there and obviously, the budget that’s now gone ahead has clearly talked about — further tax increases,” mentioned Nelson. This would potentially restore economic credibility and reduce the rising inflation of the country.
Despite that, the UK market is holding up as how Nelson correlated previous interviewee: Jonathan Ravelas, Managing Director of eManagement for Business and Marketing Services updated that the UK stock market is actually holding up — about 7,400.
“One of the things that would put a cap on the market is the next print of [Philippine] inflation which is most likely higher than 7.7% — most likely closer to 8.4 percent,” said Ravelas. With the recent event that the British Chamber co-organised, European-Philippine Business Dialogue, there are progress and partnerships that would “broaden its connections with regional agreements” such as the elements of how the Philippines could recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.