BANGKOK — To combat inflation hitting three-year peaks, the Philippine central bank is preparing for a catastrophic “Godzilla” El Niño alongside a persistent oil price shock.

Governor Eli Remolona explained that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is now utilizing scenario-based policy planning that accounts for weather severity and oil costs. Speaking Wednesday during a panel at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, he distinguished between a standard El Niño and the “Godzilla” version, which he described as being significantly more damaging.

Remolona warned that the peak impact on pricing is likely between November and February, emphasizing that the central bank’s primary goal remains maintaining price stability.

“We’re holding our breath,” he remarked, “but we have to be prepared for the worst.”

These weather threats are placing additional strain on a highly susceptible Southeast Asian economy. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority shows inflation climbed to 7.2% in September, up from 6.1% in August, driven partly by an 18% surge in rice costs.

As the top global importer of rice, the Philippines faces significant food security risks. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel has cautioned that new droughts could deplete local supplies.

Increased imports from the Philippines may further strain a global market already impacted by export restrictions and El Niño. This trend is reflected in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s rice price index, which has risen for six straight months to its highest level in 20 months.

In an effort to control rising prices, the central bank increased its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5% in August.

In a note released Wednesday, HSBC Bank’s senior ASEAN economist Aris Dacanay suggested that the BSP will likely implement another 25-basis-point increase to 5.25% next week, followed by a similar hike in December.

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Hello, this is Justina Lee writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

Taiwan has agreed to purchase 30% of gas sourced from a proposed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, according to U.S. President Donald Trump.

The latest economic data coming out of Asia on Wednesday offers clues to the region’s growth outlook, with China’s producer prices rising at its fastest pace in over four years.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, the U.K. is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

What you need to know today

U.S. President Trump said at a rally that Taiwan has agreed to purchase 30% of gas sourced from a proposed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, adding that the deal “guarantees a success.”

Trump has been increasing pressure on South Korea to participate in the project, cautioning earlier that he would charge the country more and threaten to double charges if Seoul failed to sign soon. South Korean media outlets speculated that Trump was referring to higher tariffs.

Zelenskyy to meet UK Prime Minister

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as European leaders rally to show support for the country. Zelenskyy will reportedly meet with EU leaders on Friday, on the second day of the European Council summit.

Burnham is expected to tell Zelenskyy that he has asked his ministers to draw up further sanctions, military support and fiscal packages to provide urgent support in the coming weeks.

It comes after Russia unleashed an attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least 600,000 people without power in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

ASML results

ASML, a bellwether for the global chip industry, posted its third-quarter results on Wednesday. The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker said that some of its customers are expressing interest in placing orders for its critical semiconductor tools for 2029 and 2030 as AI demand remains buoyant.

The comments will likely comfort investors who have been looking to assess the longer-term demand outlook for ASML’s lithography machines.

Asia’s economic data

On Wednesday, traders continue to digest the latest economic data coming out of Asia, as they look for clues about the region’s economic outlook.

China’s producer prices in September rose at its fastest pace in over four years, due to higher fuel prices driving costs up for businesses.

Data out of Singapore on Wednesday showed that GDP growth softened to 5.4% in the third quarter, after hitting a four-year high in the prior quarter. A decline in the city-state’s manufacturing sector contributed to the slowdown, though this was offset by an expansion in the construction sector.

Over in the Philippines, the country’s central bank is bracing itself for a “Godzilla” El Niño, which is exacerbating the effects of a prolonged oil shock, as it tries to tame inflation from three-year highs.

Meanwhile, Korean automaker Hyundai Motor revealed it is planning a “strategic” $15.5 billion investment in the country by 2032. The company said India is a strategic core market to the firm’s emerging-market growth and expansion plans.

Higher oil prices weigh on sentiment

In the oil markets, Brent and WTI prices rose Wednesday amid concerns over supply disruptions as tensions in the Middle East continue to heat up between Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

And finally…

Judge indefinitely blocks Trump White House from banning 3 media outlets

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., late Tuesday night issued an order indefinitely blocking the White House from enforcing the ban on three media outlets announced by President Donald Trump in mid-September.

The preliminary injunction by Judge Timothy Kelly extends his existing block on Trump’s ban of MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House complex.

Kelly, in a written opinion, said the three outlets were likely to succeed on a claim in their lawsuit challenging the ban that they were denied due process by Trump having summarily ordered them barred from the White House without a chance to argue against that action first.

— Dan Mangan

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Your Privacy

On this service, we and our vendors use cookies and other tools (“Cookies”) to store and access information on your device, such as device identifiers, IP address, and your browser type.

Your data may be used to save and communicate your privacy choices; ensure security, prevent fraud, and debug our products and services; personalize advertising and content; for advertising and content measurement; to conduct audience research and services development; so we can improve our services and develop new ones; to match and combine offline data with your online activity; and for social features.

We may share this data with select vendors with your consent. You can adjust your choices any time through the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer of relevant Versant sites or in-app settings.

We will also use other Cookies that are essential or related to our services, including for security and fraud prevention. To learn more about some of our vendors, see the IAB and Google Vendors under each purpose. Visit our Cookie Notice and Privacy Policy to learn more.

These Cookies and SDKs are required for Service functionality, including security and fraud prevention, and to enable any purchasing capabilities. You can set your browser to block these tracking technologies, but some parts of the site may not function properly.

The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.

Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.

Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.

Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.

– Use limited data to select advertising 796 partners can use this purpose Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).

– Create profiles for personalised advertising 640 partners can use this purpose Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users.

This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.

– Use profiles to select personalised advertising 643 partners can use this purpose Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.

– Create profiles to personalise content 265 partners can use this purpose Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users.

This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.

– Use profiles to select personalised content 238 partners can use this purpose Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.

This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.

– Measure advertising performance 921 partners can use this purpose Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc.

This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.

– Measure content performance 406 partners can use this purpose Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests.

For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.

– Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 583 partners can use this purpose Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which

target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).

– Develop and improve services 689 partners can use this purpose Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.

– Use limited data to select content 181 partners can use this purpose Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).

These Cookies and SDKs are used to collect data about your browsing habits, use of the Services, your preferences, and your interaction with advertisements across platforms and devices for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising content, both on our Services and on third party sites.

Third-party sites and services also use Targeting Cookies to deliver content, including advertisements relevant to your interests on the Services. If you reject these Cookies or SDKs, you will see less relevant advertising.

Data collected under this category through Cookies and SDKs can also be used to select and deliver personalized content, such as news articles and videos.