Philippines

Transport operations and infrastructure development in the Philippines were acutely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as lockdowns stalled construction projects, movement restrictions prohibited travel even within communities, and a ban on international arrivals in March limited aviation services for the rest of 2020. As the country’s response to Covid-19 began to take shape in the first half...

Tourism played a central role in the Philippines’ economic development in the years leading to 2020, and an increasing emphasis on sustainability underscores the sector’s importance for the coming years. While the popular island of Boracay has long drawn tourists, local authorities continue work to diversify destinations through the creation of tourism enterprise zones. These endeavours, as...

Industry has made a sustained contribution to the Philippines’ economy in recent years, accounting for roughly 30% of GDP between 2017 and 2019, with sector growth driven predominately by manufacturing. Expansion was constrained in 2020 as Covid-19 response measures impeded manufacturing activity and reduced the global demand for industrial products. Meanwhile, agriculture comprised 9-10% of...

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the Philippines’ consumption-driven economy hard, with forecasts from the IMF suggesting that real GDP could contract by as much as 9% in...

The Philippines’ financial services sector entered the Covid-19 pandemic on a solid footing, thanks to decades of regulatory reform to address the vulnerabilities exposed by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Strong capital buffers, high levels of provisioning and near-universal public health cover insulated the country from many of the impacts that other markets continue to wrestle with....

The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies of the past decade, averaging 6.4% growth per year over 2010-19. Indeed, an expanding and...