PHILIPPINES
Analyst
Diwa Guinigundo
Former Central Bank Deputy GovernorDatabanks
Recent Country Insights
IMF on the Philippines: Cautious Optimism, Hard Constraints
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 30 Dec 2025
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed its Article IV mission to the Philippines from mid-September to 1 October 2025, with the Executive Board concluding the consultation on 24 November 2025. The staff report, released on 15 December with the consent of Philippine authorities, reflects ...
Why the BSP may need to pause further monetary easing
PHILIPPINES · Report · 22 Dec 2025
The BSP cut policy rates in December 2025 as inflation fell well below target, creating room for easing. However, Governor Eli Remolona has since clarified that further rate cuts are not assured and will depend on incoming data, financial stability risks, and market confidence. While economic ...
The Trillion Peso March: mass action, political maneuvering, and the imperative of evidence-based unity
PHILIPPINES · Report · 12 Dec 2025
The Philippines is experiencing a surge of public mobilization against corruption, especially over alleged irregularities in flood control projects. While many rallies have focused on institutional reform and evidence-based accountability, a recent event pushing for President Marcos’s resignation...
Losing confidence, losing steam
PHILIPPINES · Report · 12 Nov 2025
The Philippine economy slowed sharply in the third quarter of 2025, expanding only 4.0% year-on-year—the weakest growth since 2011 outside the pandemic years—due to weak industrial performance, falling investment, and eroding business confidence amid governance scandals. Services remained the mai...
Accommodating Growth Weakness: Balancing Support and Prudence
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 11 Nov 2025
The Philippine economy slowed markedly in the third quarter of 2025, expanding by only 4.0%, down from 5.5% in the previous quarter and 5.2% a year ago—well below the government’s full-year target of 5.5–6.5%. This clear growth deceleration, coupled with steady headline inflation at 1.7% in both ...
2026 National Budget: the challenges of governance and fiscal consolidation
PHILIPPINES · Report · 23 Oct 2025
The Philippines' 2026 P6.8-trillion national budget reflects the government’s effort to sustain social spending but exposes persistent weaknesses in fiscal governance. Despite reallocations from flood control to education, health, and food security, unprogrammed appropriations worth P250 billion...
Unmasking corruption and irregularities in public works: disasters, governance and growth
PHILIPPINES · Report · 23 Oct 2025
The Philippines again tops the 2025 World Risk Index as the world’s most disaster-prone nation—an outcome shaped as much by geography as by weak governance. Typhoons, floods, and earthquakes expose not only natural hazards but also institutional failures: substandard infrastructure, unfinished pr...
The One-Month Income Tax Holiday Proposal: relief or risk?
PHILIPPINES · Report · 14 Oct 2025
In the middle of last week, Senator Erwin Tulfo filed Senate Bill No. 1446, seeking to suspend income-tax withholding for one month as financial relief for workers. While the measure would temporarily raise take-home pay and slightly boost consumption, it would cost the government an estimated ₱5...
A quick guide to the flood control anomalies in the Philippines
PHILIPPINES · Report · 02 Oct 2025 · 1 response
The Philippine flood control scandal has exploded into one of the country’s largest corruption crises in decades, exposing the scale of wasted funds and institutional decay. Sparked by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2025 State of the Nation Address, the scandal revealed “ghost projects” — incom...