Philippines to scrap rice quotas, new tax in Malaysia

The Philippines looks to be on the verge of passing legislation to allow in more rice imports. If the bill passes, it should lead to a sharp drop in inflation and would reduce the pressure for further aggressive interest rate hikes.  Meanwhile, the introduction of a new sales tax in Malaysia is unlikely to lead to a sharp rise inflation, but will only go some of the way towards filling the gap in revenues caused by abolition of the Goods and Service Tax earlier this year.