1. Economy of the Philippines
Emily Abreu, Leslie Mendez, and Jacintha Sumitro
Dr. McCornac
EC341: Economies of East Asia

2. Philippines: Where is it on the map?
[Leslie]

3. Background Info Official name: Republic of the Philippines
Capital: Manila
President: Benigno Aquino III (since June 30, present)
Population: 100,998,376 people
7th most populated in Asia; 13th most populated in the world
Major urban areas: Manila: million, Davao: 1.63 million, Cebu City: 951,000, Zamboanga: 936,000
Language: (officially) Filipino and English, as well as 8 major dialects (ex. Tagalong, Pampango, Ilocano)
Geographical location
Southeast Asia: archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam
The Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands
[Leslie]

4. Economic Indicators Philippines Year of Data: 2014
GDP (constant prices, national currency):
PHP 7, billion
GDP growth (constant prices, national currency):
6.235%
GDP (current prices, US Dollars) for Philippines in year 2014:
US $284.6 billion
GDP per capita (current prices):
PHP 128,187.16
US $2,913.34
GDP (PPP) USD for Philippines in year 2014:
US $ billion
Gross National Savings (% of GDP):
22.302%
Inflation:
Average Consumer Prices (Indexed to Year 2000):
(Average Consumer Price Change %):
(Index base year 2000= 100)
4.462%
[Jacintha] Economic Indicators
Source:

5. Structure of the Economy
[Jacintha] Structure of the Philippine Economy
Source:

6. Key Figures [Jacintha] Key Figures
FDI graph:
Overseas Remittances: Philippines leads Southeast Asia in remittances in part because it has the region’s largest overseas worker population; accounting for roughly 10% of the country’s total population
Source:
Philippines- Major Trading Partners (year of data: 2013)
Source:

7. Major Economic Issue: Unemployment
Labor force participation rate:
62.9% (July 2015)
January 2015: 6.0% unemployment
rate
July 2015: 6.5% unemployment rate
Many unemployed are college graduates
High unemployment rates cause
many to look for work overseas
Causes of high unemployment
Failure to rapidly generate employment opportunities
High population growth
Working population grew 2.6% annually from
Labor force: 23.9 million (1997)→ (2008)
Rise in unemployment leads to rise in poverty levels
[Emily] Major Economic Issue

8. Major Economic Issue: Poor Infrastructure
Infrastructure: transportation, energy, communication
“Too many people going to work, too many vehicles and not enough roads… and taking the train is like lining up to see a star. You wait for hours”
30min commute can take up to 2hours
2.2 million vehicles a day use Manila’s (crumbling) road system-
Costs the country Philippine Peso (PHP) 876 billion per year (more than $20billion in lost productivity & wasted energy)
Traffic jams impede the economic growth of the Philippines—the traffic is costing the country’s economy at least 3 billion Philippine Peso ($64 billion) a day (serious drain on an economy of about $250billion)
Filipinos waste 28,000 hours in “traffic”
The Philippines is #13 on the world’s Traffic Index Mid-Year (#7 in Asia) with the worst traffic situation
[Leslie] Major Economic Issue

9. Poor Infrastructure Continued
Why are cities experiencing major traffic congestion?
“Because high economic and population growth in the last decade were not accompanied by [proportionate] and timely investment in infrastructure”
In the last 4 years, the government fell short of its planned infrastructure spending an average of PHP50 billion per year (roughly $1.1 billion)
Some projects have been delayed at various stages from planning to implementing them
Impact
Farmers have limited access to reliable roads, bridges, and irrigation to produce better crops and connect to markets in the cities
Very high food prices, reduces real income of all Filipinos (i.e. Filipinos pay double for rice compared to Thais and Vietnamese)
Has an damaging financial impact on businesses and the overall economy
The longer people are on the road à more $ spent on fuel à more emission of pollutants that the population is exposed to à more effects on the general public health

10. Future Economic Outlook for the Philippines
Philippines used to have a continuous unemployment rate around 7-8%, which has now fallen to around 6% in recent years
External debt to GDP ratio from about 40% (2007) to about 20% (2014)
Strong GDP growth → 5.6% (Q2 2015)
Economy is growing,
but still has much progress to make
October 2014: over one million jobs
created→ quality of jobs still lacking
GDP is on the rise, but poverty rates
are just about the same since 2006
*Video:
outsider perspective vs. insider perspective
Video link:
[Emily] Future Economic Outlook for the Philippines

11. Works Cited
constraints-opportunities.pdf
economy-a-whopping-64-million-per-day /
philippines-erodes-the-nations-growth-prospects.html?_r=0
january-2015
unemployment-remain-problematic
increase-during-the-holiday-season-which-months-of-the-year-post-the-highest-and-lowest- records/
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