Three strong earthquakes rocked a coastal region near the Philippine capital within half an hour of each other Saturday, sending people running out of buildings.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quakes, the strongest of which hit the coast close to the town of Mabini, south of Manila.
The first 5.7 magnitude temblor struck inland at 3:08pm local time followed by the 5.9 quake just a minute later – their epicentres within a few kilometres of each other, according to US geologists.
The 5.0 quake hit in the same region after another 20 minutes.
AFP reporters saw people running out of office buildings in Manila’s financial district, while local television network ABS-CBN broadcast live footage of frightened commuters fleeing the passenger terminal at the port of Batangas, near the epicentres.
ABS-CBN quoted local officials as saying the quakes broke the windows of some houses in the region, but there were no reports of casualties.
* AFP
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
