Oil prices are expected to increase by more than P0.50 per liter this week given the strengthening dollar.

“The dollar has strengthened a lot last week and this has a bigger impact than the increase of the oil price per se,” Department of Energy Director Zenaida Monzada said yesterday.

The United States currency was generally strong in recent weeks on investors’ expectation for the tapering of the Federal Reserve’s bond buying program, which is being used to boost expansion of the world’s largest economy.

100K rice buffer
stock arrives

The 100,000 bags of rice buffer supply from Vietnam for Negros Occidental arrived at the Bacolod City Real Estate Development Corporation Port yesterday.

NFA provincial manager Procopio Trabajo II said they still have 46, 903 bags of rice from Panay this year stocked at their warehouse and 7, 229 imported rice also from Vietnam that they purchased last year.

There is also a remaining stock of 50,142 bags of palay which is on standby for milling, Trabajo said.

TravelXchange attracting
top tourism, travel firms

The 7th TravelXchange 2013, set in Bacolod City July 19 to 21 at the Robinsons Place, will feature some of the biggest travel and tourism stakeholders in the country, a press release from the event organizers Selrahco, a tourism marketing and public relations consulting company in the country, said.

Participating for the first time are Resorts World Manila, Go Hotels, Summit Hotels, Sheridan Hotels, the City of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, tourism entities from Regions 9 and CARAGA under the Department of Tourism umbrella and Diamond Hotel in Cebu.

The three-day travel fair will offer special airfare discounts, hotel room rates and holiday packages including cruises to various popular tourist destinations in the Philippines and the region, the press release said.