Tag: Philippine economy

Slower economy affirms undue hype over credit rating upgrade

Mayo 9, 2019

Sign of unsound economy Slower gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the first quarter of 2019 belies any claim of a healthy Philippine economy. Research group IBON stressed that the Duterte administration’s enthusiasm over the recent credit rating upgrade that the country got is unwarranted. Instead of hailing business-biased programs, government should look to more […]

Inflation slows but prices still higher than before

Mayo 7, 2019

Inflation slowed in April 2019 but rice, fish, sugar, and many vegetables are still more expensive than last year

How do the senatoriables fare on contractualization?

Mayo 4, 2019

Endo has not been ended. Various forms of contractualization are still abound and continue to subject millions of workers to low paying insecure jobs without benefits. Who will act to end contractualization once and for all?

Malacañang’s enthusiasm on credit rating upgrade unwarranted-IBON

Mayo 4, 2019

IBON executive director Sonny Africa said that the recent credit rating upgrade is not a sign of economic progress and that Malacañang’s enthusiasm is greatly unwarranted. The credit rating upgrade is most of all an assessment of the government’s ability to repay debt and not of economic development. There would be no such upgrade if […]

IBON Facts & Figures: “Alternative to Power Privatization” [Excerpt]

Abril 18, 2019

Amid power interruptions because of combined forced power outages due to maintainance and various power plants’ system problems, we share the introduction of the December 2014 IBON Facts & Figures issue titled “Alternative to Power Privatization”: “When the Philippine government privatized the electric power sector in 2001, it promised cheaper and sustainable supply of energy […]

Don’t insist on low poverty threshold, address jobs crisis, gov’t told

Abril 17, 2019

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) recently attributed reduced poverty in the first semester of 2018 to the rising quality of jobs under the Duterte administration. But research group IBON said that dismal jobs creation, the magnitude of joblessness, poor quality work, and meager wages give away the true picture of Philippine poverty. The […]