In 2018 the Philippines posted a record trade deficit of $41.4bn, the largest gap in the nation’s history. This was a major increase on previous years, compared to $27.4bn in 2017 and $26.7bn in 2016. However, the results from the first few months of 2019 suggest that the deficit is beginning to narrow. In April 2019 the balance of trade in...
One of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is delivering robust returns. Indeed, the PSE index (PSEi) ended 2017 on an all-time high – up 25.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) – and broke an intra-day record on the year’s last trading day, reaching 8640.04 points. These gains proved difficult to sustain in 2018, with...
With financial inclusion a high priority for both the government and retail banks, which are looking to the untapped population to increase their customer base, recent developments in financial technology (fintech) have been greeted with great interest. In particular, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank, is increasingly...
The results of the latest OBG Business Barometer: Philippines CEO Survey shed light on how President Rodrigo Duterte’s tax reform packages have been received by the business community. Effective since January 1, 2018, the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) programme has exempted many low-wage workers from income tax but was also partly blamed for causing...
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has long been associated with insurrection, conflict and extremism. Although much of Mindanao has been integrated into the mainstream Philippine economy and political system, the ARMM maintains uneasy relations and resistance to central government authority, which has led to economic isolation...
With some 175 ethnolinguistic groups spread across the vast archipelago of the Philippines, uniting some of the more remote regions and distinct communities under a national identity has been a challenging task for the central government. Political power gradually became concentrated in the present capital Manila under Spanish and US colonial...
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