The Philippines entered 2026 saddled with the widest budget deficit in Southeast Asia, leaving Manila alongside Jakarta facing the most severe market pressure in the region to scale back state spending as borrowing costs climb. Artie Lam, Oxford Economics assistant economist, wrote in a June 2...
The national government’s (NG) usual April budget surplus shrank by more than half this year after the annual income tax returns (AITRs) filing and payment deadline was extended by one month due to the national energy emergency, although revenues were partly supported by millions of pesos in...
Philippine consumer spending momentum remained weak in the first quarter of 2026, although conditions showed signs of stabilizing in March after two straight months of contraction just before the war in the Middle East erupted, according to global financial giant Visa. An April 28 Visa Business and...
Vice President Sara Duterte cautioned Filipino families to prepare for more difficult economic conditions in the coming months, citing rising fuel costs and increasing prices of basic goods, while urging households not to compromise on education spending. In her speech at the Rambakan Festival in...
The peso’s purchasing power hit another record low in March as the price shock wrought by the war in the Middle East further eroded Filipinos’ ability to spend the local currency. The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), released on Tuesday, April 7, showed that the...
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday, January 14, said it has awarded 99.3 percent of its 2025 procurement projects, significantly accelerating the delivery of laptops, textbooks, and classrooms nationwide, in line with the Marcos administration’s push for faster, more transparent,...
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Saturday, Dec. 20, that he intends to be more active next year in overseeing government spending and addressing underutilized funds across key sectors. In an interview with Usapang Senado over DWIZ radio, Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance,...
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon on Tuesday, Oct. 28, vowed to scrap the complex formula for allocable and non-allocable funds and said budget allocations must reflect real community infrastructure needs, not political influence. The move follows the...
Emphasizing the need to ensure that the massive allocation translates to genuine improvements in learning outcomes, the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) has called for full transparency and accountability in the use of the record-high P1.28-trillion education budget for 2026. In a statement...
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday, September 2, welcomed President Marcos’ historic allocation of P1.224 trillion to the education sector under the proposed 2026 national budget—marking the first time the Philippines has met the UNESCO-recommended benchmark of spending four percent...
Urging full transparency and greater investment in education and human capital, an advocacy group on Saturday, August 23, called on lawmakers to prioritize Filipinos over infrastructure as they tackle the 2026 budget. “We must allocate our resources where they matter most, because every peso...
Downward interest rates and sustained economic growth, supported by election-related spending, boosted a still weak private consumption in the Philippines in the second quarter of 2025, according to global financial giant Visa. According to Visa Business and Economic Insights’ Asia-Pacific...
