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The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) posted a sharp rise in investment approvals in the first five months of 2026, driven by a wave of export-oriented and technology-intensive projects that reinforced the country’s position as a regional manufacturing and investment hub.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to strengthen its legal, operational, and cybersecurity foundations as it advances plans to explore a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), highlighting the growing complexity of building next-generation financial infrastructure.

The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) reached US$104 billion as at end-May this year, according to preliminary figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). This reflects a slight drop from the previous month, caused mainly by the national government withdrawing funds from its foreign currency deposits with the central bank to pay off foreign debts, lower value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to falling global gold prices, and net foreign exchange transactions carried out by the central bank.

While headline inflation slowed to 6.8 percent in May from 7.2 percent in April, core inflation—which strips out volatile items—picked up to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent, a key signal that underlying price pressures are strengthening, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said on Friday.

Philippine headline inflation eased to 6.8 percent in May from 7.2 percent in April, coming in below the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) projected range of 7.1 percent to 7.9 percent as transport costs and food price increases moderated, according to data released Friday by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).