PHILIPPINES
Analyst
Diwa Guinigundo
Former Central Bank Deputy GovernorDatabanks
Recent Country Insights
Likely scenario: one rate cut for the year?
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 01 Jul 2024
As expected by the markets, the BSP decided to keep its policy rates steady at 6.5%, the highest in 17 years last Thursday, June 27. Accordingly, interest rates on overnight deposit and lending facilities remained unchanged at 6.0% and 7%, respectively. Now focusing on the exchange rate path, the...
Business and consumer sentiment less optimistic in Q2 2024
PHILIPPINES · Report · 01 Jul 2024
Notwithstanding the country’s real economic growth of 5.7 percent in Q1 2024, business sentiment in the Philippines turned out less optimistic in Q2 of 2024, with the overall confidence index (CI) recorded at 32.1 percent from 33.1 percent in Q1 of the current year, as reported in the Business Ex...
Beyond FDI campaigning
PHILIPPINES · Report · 25 Jun 2024
The Philippine broadsheets bannered recently that the foreign trips undertaken by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has virtually made his foreign trips an opportunity to conduct his foreign investment campaign, yielded $19 billion in foreign investments “that have already been actualized or hav...
UniTeam, no united team anymore?
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 22 Jun 2024
As we wrote in this space last February 12, 2024 we focused on the brewing issue of a possible break up in the UniTeam of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr and Vice-President Sara Duterte, or effectively the Marcoses and the Dutertes. We based such a possibility on the President’s statements that he...
Fitch retains Philippines’ investment grade and stable outlook
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 10 Jun 2024
After reporting that “Philippine bank asset quality and earnings will be supported by a robust economy over the next two years” last April 2024, Fitch Ratings affirmed the Philippines’ investment grade rating of BBB, a notch above the minimum investment grade. The country’s stable outlook was als...
Greater circumspection on monetary policy
PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 03 Jun 2024
When the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP or the Philippines’ central bank) concluded its May 2024 meeting on monetary policy two weeks ago, the stance of monetary policy was established, and it remained hawkish in view of the rising trend of price pressures and the upside r...
New list of infrastructure, longer list of deliverables
PHILIPPINES · Report · 28 May 2024
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, an inter-agency committee chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., approved on May 16, 2024, a total of P33.3 billion for new infrastructure projects. The approval is in line with the objective of expanding and upgrading the country...
Philippines-China Maritime Row: Getting uglier
PHILIPPINES · Report · 21 May 2024
How China would react to defensive moves of the Philippines is the big question. It would have to rethink its use of powerful lasers and water cannons, for even the US Indo-Pacific Command had at one point expressed the view that if this results in the death of any sailor or military personnel, ...
Beneath the diplomatic stand-off between the Philippines and China
PHILIPPINES · Report · 06 May 2024
This report adds new information about the economic implications of the China-Philippines maritime conflict to our previously published report "Diplomatic stand-off between the Philippines and China". It is best to consider that since the dispute is diplomatic, the solution should remain diplo...