Top News

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday reported a significant increase in the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) for February 2025, reflecting robust external liquidity and enhanced financial stability. Preliminary data shows that the GIR, an indicator of capacity to pay for external obligations, grew to USD106.7 billion by the end of February 2025, up from USD103.3 billion in January 2025, marking a notable month-on-month increase of USD3.4 billion.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday reported that the outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) increased by 12.8 percent year-on-year in January, up from 12.2 percent in December 2024. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, these loans grew by 1.4 percent. The growth in loans signals robust credit activity, contributing to economic stability amid ongoing financial conditions.

The Philippines' unemployment rate decreased to 4.3 percent in January, down from 4.5 percent in the same period last year, as the economy continued to create more jobs to accommodate new entrants to the labor force, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report on Thursday.

Foreign arrivals in the Philippines declined 7 percent in February, totaling 541,008, as the number of tourists from South Korea—the country’s primary market—continued its sharp slide.

Inflation in the Philippines for February defied expectations, slowing to a lower-than-anticipated 2.1 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). This marked a significant drop from January’s 2.9 percent and was below the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) forecast range of 2.2 percent to 3 percent.