Headline

Lowest-income households have lost as much as Php6,800 to high inflation

November 6, 2018

The incomes of the country’s poorest households have eroded after ten months of accelerating inflation. Research group IBON estimates that the poorest 60 million Filipinos have suffered income losses of anywhere from Php2,500 to as much as Php6,800 because of worsening inflation since the start of 2018. The inflation rate has increased from 3.4% in […]

Stubbornly high inflation increases risk of econ slowdown, unmanageable debt–IBON

November 6, 2018

Research group IBON said that the apparently uncontrollable inflation is fast becoming a flashpoint of the administration’s economic mismanagement. High inflation is combining with rising interest rates, slowing remittances and failing exports to dampen economic growth. The administration is desperate for a short-term infrastructure stimulus to compensate for these, said the group, but a major growth slowdown […]

Php18,855 already lost–Jeepney drivers among biggest losers from TRAIN’s oil taxes-IBON

October 31, 2018

Research group IBON said that jeepney drivers and their families have suffered huge income losses from rising pump prices on top of facing rising prices of basic goods and services. The initial and impending fare hikes give immediate relief but only temporarily. Fare hikes only worsen the burden on commuters and the government needs to […]

PH Income Inequality

October 31, 2018

It is not yet a severe economic crisis as such but the accumulation of economic bad news is worrying. It is clear that the fundamentals are unsound and the economy is weakening aside from increasingly vulnerable to a political upheaval or to a renewed global downturn. The majority of Filipinos are poor and gained little […]

PH Wealth Inequality

October 31, 2018

It is not yet a severe economic crisis as such but the accumulation of economic bad news is worrying. It is clear that the fundamentals are unsound and the economy is weakening aside from increasingly vulnerable to a political upheaval or to a renewed global downturn. The majority of Filipinos are poor and gained little […]

PH Wealth and Income Inequality

October 31, 2018

It is not yet a severe economic crisis as such but the accumulation of economic bad news is worrying. It is clear that the fundamentals are unsound and the economy is weakening aside from increasingly vulnerable to a political upheaval or to a renewed global downturn. The majority of Filipinos are poor and gained little […]

Further imperiling Philippine rice

October 29, 2018

The government’s accelerated move to impose rice tariffs and lift quantitative restrictions on rice imports is touted to ease inflation. It comes with a heavy price in the long-term, however, as it puts in peril the livelihood of millions of Filipino rice farmers. Amid runaway inflation triggered by its regressive tax reform program, the Duterte […]

Worker productivity goes to profits, not wages

October 26, 2018

“A large wage hike is also justified by growing worker productivity. Between 2009 and 2017, labor productivity in NCR grew by 35% from Php456,059 per worker to Php614,297. However, that same period, the real value of the mandated minimum wage only increased by 11% and of ADBP by 16%, both measured in real terms at […]

Substantial wage hike possible in NCR

October 26, 2018

“NCR firms have more than enough profits to support a Php238 minimum wage hike. The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) reports that NCR firms (with 20 and over employees) had combined profits of Php903 billion in 2015 while giving an average daily basic pay […]