BSP says may hike rates if…

by Ferry Bayu | Aug 11, 2023 | Business

BSP says may hike rates if…

MANILA — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona said the central bank would only raise rates if there were new supply shocks on inflation. 

Remolona made the statement in an interview with Nomura economist Euben Paracuelles

“If we have new supply shocks on inflation, which are unusually large, and if El Niño turns out to be very severe and combined with a confluence of other factors, we would have to tighten again,” the BSP governor said when asked what would trigger a resumption of the hiking cycle.

“Headline inflation is at 4.7 percent year-on-year, and we want to get to the target of 2 to 4 percent. But we also want to be comfortable that inflation is staying within that range and inflation expectations remain anchored,” he noted.

“If we don’t tighten when those shocks materialize, then expectations could get out of hand, inflation will feed on itself, and it gets much harder for us,” he explained.

Asked if policy settings would be kept stable if no supply shocks happen, Remolona said, “The pause means the signals from the data are still mixed and not consistent. Some indicators show the economy is holding up, some show it is weakening.”

“If this continues, then it’s likely prudent for us to still pause,” he said.

Remolona said the BSP would be cautious about cutting rates.

“If there’s a chance that we might have to raise rates again after we start cutting, we don’t want to take the risk from these quick reversals. I think the exit has to be a smooth process and this is what central banks have learned over the years. Sudden reversals are bad,” he said.

Inflation further eased for a sixth consecutive month in July. The BSP has said it remained ready to adjust the monetary policy stance if necessary to ease price pressures.

Easing inflation has allowed the BSP to keep rates steady at 6.25 percent during its last policy-setting meeting. The next meeting is on August 17.

MiiTel can now recognize voice emotions with AI

by Ferry Bayu | Aug 11, 2023 | Business

MiiTel can now recognize voice emotions with AI

Jakarta, August 11, 2023 — RevComm is pleased to announce the latest breakthrough in the world of business communication. By combining artificial intelligence (AI) with voice emotion recognition capabilities, RevComm introduces an innovative feature that enables users to identify human emotions in phone conversations and online meetings using MiiTel.

Speech emotion recognition is a technology that allows users to recognize and visualize the level of positive and negative emotions in verbal conversations online. Through this feature, users can more easily monitor and evaluate the quality of their conversations.

The sophistication of the voice emotion recognition feature can be experienced in phone conversations using MiiTel, RevComm’s innovative AI-based smart telephone system that can automatically record, transcribe, and analyze voice. Most recently, MiiTel also supports the automatic generation of conversation summaries with ChatGPT. This technology can support the improvement of sales, call center, and business performance.

Furthermore, voice emotion recognition is also available for MiiTel Meetings, an AI-based online meeting analytics tool that can support business communication in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet platforms.

This feature utilizes colors to depict the levels of emotions in conversations. Darkening shades of green indicate higher levels of happiness, whereas deepening shades of orange indicate higher levels of negativity. Grey represents a neutral emotional state, while white signifies the absence of conversation.

Furthermore, the emotional identification within the speech emotion recognition feature can be observed from two distinct perspectives: that of MiiTel users and that of customers. The user’s facet enabling the monitoring of the quality of conducted conversations. Conversely, from the customer’s standpoint, this can serve as a evaluative guide and provide insights into the types of conversations that elicit positive or negative reactions from clients.

This breakthrough signifies RevComm’s commitment to provide cutting-edge technological solutions to meet the evolving needs of its customers. MiiTel is currently accessible in Japan, the United States, and Indonesia. Visit miitel.id to get a free demo.

MiiTel is an innovation from RevComm, one of Japan’s fastest-growing technology companies. Within five years, RevComm became a unicorn and won numerous awards: Forbes Japan’s Startup of the Year, Google for Startups, AWS Summit, Mizuho Innovation Award, Japan Venture Awards, BOXIL SaaS Award, Deloitte Technology Fast 50, and Forbes AI 50.

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Diokno rejects proposed luxury tax hike

by Ferry Bayu | Aug 11, 2023 | Business

Diokno rejects proposed luxury tax hike

MANILA — Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Thursday nixed the idea of imposing higher tax on luxury items.

Luxury goods are currently subject to a 20 percent tax. 

Responding to questions from Nueva Ecija Rep. Rosanna Ria Vergara during the opening of the 2024 budget deliberations at the House of Representatives, Diokno explained that it is hard to implement and easy to avoid.

“I was wondering, do you have anything on your table that propose like a proportional tax, a luxury tax, a wealth tax? Is that something you would consider?” Vergara asked.

Diokno said the agency had no such proposals.

“When you propose a tax, one nice property of a tax is it should give you a high yield and the administrative cost should be very minimal… For example, if you wanna tax diamond, you’re practically not going to collect anything because that’s easy to hide,” Diokno said.

“Sometimes when you also try to tax a luxury good, people will just go abroad and buy it there… Luxury tax is not part of our proposal at the moment,” he added.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda earlier raised the possibility of raising tax on jewelry, perfumes, and yachts to 25 percent or 30 percent to increase government revenue. 

Marcos earlier said the proposal was “reasonable.” 

When asked if the government is considering non-regressive taxes, Diokno revealed they are reviewing the VAT because the government is only collecting less than half of what it is supposed to make from the VAT.

“[VAT here] is one of the highest in this part of the world yet its yield is very low, only 40 percent. We only collect 40 percent of what we’re supposed to collect so we are doing a study on the value added tax which is a nice tax to make it more effective and more high yielding,” Diokno said.

Diokno also defended the VAT in terms of being pro-poor.

“I think our value added tax is one of the best in terms of being pro-poor because we do not tax food in its original state, in other countries it’s also being taxed,” Diokno said.