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In a bid to ensure more efficient use of taxpayer money, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced the agency's new focus on projects that offer an internal rate of return (IRR) of 12 to 14 percent per year and a payback period of no more than seven years. This approach to budgeting and operations marks a shift towards prioritizing investments that are both bankable and profitable, with non-investment-grade projects to be deprioritized, regardless of their agricultural viability.

The country’s gross international reserves (GIR), an indicator of capacity to pay foreign currency ovligations, stood at USD103.0 billion at the end of January 2025, down from USD106.3 billion at the close of 2024, according to preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

A recent Social Weather Stations survey, conducted in partnership with the Stratbase Group, reveals that a majority of Filipinos believe rice saw the most significant price increase among food items in the past three months.

The Philippines’ unemployment rate remained steady at 3.1 percent in December 2024, matching the rate recorded in December 2023, despite a drop from 3.2 percent in November 2024. While the number of unemployed individuals rose to 1.63 million in December, up from 1.60 million a year earlier, it marked a decrease from the 1.66 million recorded in November.

Visitor arrivals in the Philippines surged 9.1 percent year-on-year to 626,900 in January 2025, marking the first time since the pandemic that arrivals breached the 600,000 mark in a single month, according to data from the Department of Tourism (DoT).