A grim word is beginning to circulate in discussions of the Philippine economy: stagflation. Strictly speaking, the country is not there yet. Growth has slowed sharply and inflation remains uncomfortable, but unemployment is not exceptionally high and output continues to expand. A better...
There was a time early in the Marcos administration when the Philippine economy appeared to have recovered its stride. Coming out of the pandemic, growth was vigorous. But the trajectory since then tells a much less reassuring story. By the second quarter of 2026, gross domestic product (GDP)...
The Philippines is falling behind its neighbors—not because the region is weak, but because domestic politics has become an economic drag. While much of ASEAN continues to post respectable numbers, the Philippines has slowed sharply. Its 2.3 percent growth in the second quarter of 2026 was the...
The good For the Philippines, entry into the World Bank’s upper-middle-income club is both a vindication and a warning. After decades in the lower-middle-income category, the country has at last crossed the line. The achievement is real; so is its modesty. The World Bank’s latest income...
Malacañang expects the Philippine economy to regain momentum in the second half of the year after growth slowed to 2.3 percent in the second quarter, with the government moving to accelerate spending and infrastructure projects. Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro...
Within days of assuming office on July 1, 2022, the Marcos Jr. administration unveiled an ambitious fiscal consolidation plan: the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework 2022–2028 (MTFF 2022–28). This plan was unprecedented in two respects: it was the first framework of its kind in Philippine history...
Controlling the rising prices of commodities remains the top national concern among Filipinos, with 57 percent saying it should be the government’s immediate priority. This was according to the latest Pulse Asia survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews from June 28 to July 3 and 6,...
President Marcos’ economic managers are poised to lower the country 's economic growth targets as the lingering effects of state underspending, an infrastructure corruption scandal, and external inflationary pressures weigh down the near-term outlook. In an interview on TV5’s Money Talks,...
In times of crisis, such as the one we face this year in 2026 as a result of the Unied States–Iran war and the looming El Niño phenomenon during the second half of the year, we should consider the advice given in the Comprehensive Food Security Framework (CFSF). Described in the book edited by...
I just received from a nephew of mine a communication he received from a mutual friend, Rafael “Raffy” Moreno Alunan III, about the state of the Philippine economy and, especially, about the horrible actions of some of our politicians. I would like to comment extensively on this missive to the...
I am always flattered when I meet people well-established in their respective professions (those in their 40s to 60s) who tell me that they learned their basic economics from the textbooks I wrote in the 1970s and 1980s for both high school and college students, especially in private schools. The...
The Philippines has the youngest population in East Asia, with a median age of 26. In contrast, South Korea is the oldest, with an average age of 46. Although there is hope that South Korea 's demographic crisis might ease—given that its birth rate rose for a second straight year in...
