NEWS FLASH

UPCOMING WEBINAR - CENTRAL AMERICA OUTLOOK: COSTA RICA, EL SALVADOR, GU...

Manila's airports to transition from bad to good
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 27 Mar 2024

After years of being touted as one of the worst airports in the world, there might be hope for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Its ill reputation is not surprising: from 2010-2023, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIIA) put in only P27.1 billion as capital expenditure, w...

Philippines: Jobs trend slightly reverses course
PHILIPPINES · Report · 18 Mar 2024

The Philippines’ employment rate increased slightly, to 95.5 percent in January 2024 from the 95.2 percent posted in January of the previous year. The rate was, however, lower than the 96.9 percent employment rate recorded in December 2023. Some seasonality is definitely involved here. Consider...

Banking activities rising despite high interest rates?
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 09 Mar 2024

Contrary to the expectations of many, the Philippine economy sustained its expansion at 5.6% in 2023 from an extremely robust growth of 7.6% in 2022. Indeed, this was lower than the official target of 6% - 7% and what is required to recover its previous growth path prior to the pandemic of 2020. ...

BSP not too anxious to unhinge monetary policy
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 04 Mar 2024

In a quote that could very well apply to the BSP’s inflation management, BSP Governor Eli Remolona was quoted having declared that “we want to be prepared for the dangers of rosy scenarios” when the central bank’s Financial Stability Report was rolled out to the public three weeks ago, February 1...

Cha-Cha as an economic risk
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 04 Mar 2024

In our previous report dated February 12, 2024, we raised the brewing issue of a possible break up in the UniTeam of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Vice-President Sara Duterte. The cracks were beginning to be more apparent first in the International Criminal Court (ICC) involving the Vice-Pres...

Disunity in the UniTeam
PHILIPPINES · Report · 12 Feb 2024

The Marcos Jr.-Sara Duterte alliance seemed fragile from the very beginning, but the fragility of the alliance is now made more apparent in at least two major developments recently. The first is the ICC (International Criminal Court) investigation of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte. In this, both M...

Fiscal sustainability over growth in the Philippines?
PHILIPPINES · Report · 05 Feb 2024

We were most disappointed that Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan should explain that lower public spending in the last quarter of 2023, and in the same context, its flat growth rate for the whole year of 2023, was due to the government’s fiscal consolidation plan. The government...

Webinar replay - Philippines: Outlook, risks and challenges for Marcos 2.0
PHILIPPINES · Report · 02 Feb 2024

Visit our calendar page to watch replay of our webinar featuring GlobalSource Partners' Philippines Analyst Diwa Guinigundo discussing the Philippines' macro and political outlook in 2024.

Slide Presentation: Philippines - Outlook, risks and challenges for Marcos 2.0
PHILIPPINES · Report · 29 Jan 2024

Get insight into the challenges facing the Marcos administration's sustainable economic growth goals and how the growing divides in the Philippines, the country's charter change, and territorial conflict in the West Philippine Sea will shape the country's political outlook—all with the slide pres...

Charter change: Game changer in the Philippines?
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 15 Jan 2024

It started with one ad that made the rounds of television networks, calling for a change in some provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Repudiating the 1986 People Power Revolution that ended the elder Marcos's dictatorship, the message was that progress in the Philippines was stalled be...

Majority of Filipinos rate inflation as topmost concern
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 12 Jan 2024

It is not surprising that majority of Filipinos continued to express concerns over the issue of inflation. While inflation descended to only 3.9% in December 2023, already within the official target of 2-4%, the overall 2023 average inflation reached 6.0% (2018=100), the highest since 2008 when i...

Philippines inflation: establishing a downtrend?
PHILIPPINES · Report · 08 Jan 2024

The January 5 release of the December 2023 inflation rate report in the Philippines indicates another possible downtrend of the country’s price movements. The first episode occurred last year, when inflation fell from a peak of 8.7% in January 2023 and dropped consistently in the following months...

4th Quarter BES: one missing link
PHILIPPINES · Report · 26 Dec 2023

This is the biggest hurdle for public authorities in achieving high and sustainable economic growth: to leverage on technology and strategic work systems. To the extent that private firms, whether big conglomerates or small business outfits, are capable of transcending a situation of limited capi...

A new office, a new man
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 22 Dec 2023

It’s all in President Bongbong Marcos’ Executive Order (EO) No. 49. The Order created the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (OSAPIEA) in the Office of the President. Its seven whereases virtually repudiated the current state of affairs in economi...

November inflation: BSP at a crossroads?
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 09 Dec 2023

Early last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the November 2023 headline inflation rate, and it must have caused early holiday rejoicing to both the Philippines’ National Government (NG) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). At 4.1%, last month’s inflation rate is the 3...