The Marcos Jr. administration has made 2024 a banner year for economic achievements and has once again successfully positioned the Philippines as among the fastest-growing economies in Asia despite global challenges such as geopolitical tensions.

“2024 is a year of triumph for the Filipino people. In the face of unprecedented challenges, we have emerged stronger. I assure you that from here on, things will get better — because you have a government that works very hard to ensure that all Filipinos reap the rewards of strong economic growth through more comfortable lives and more high-quality jobs. Sisiguraduhin naming mas gaganda pa ang ating bukas sa Bagong Pilipinas, because this is what the Filipino people truly deserve,” Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said.

Within the first 100 days of Secretary Recto’s leadership, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) proactively recalibrated the government’s medium-term targets to adapt to both domestic and global realities and ensure that these goals reflect the needs of the Filipino people.

Under the refined Medium-Term Fiscal Program, the country’s deficit and debt are projected to gradually reduce in a realistic manner, while ensuring that the government can finance the long-term investments needed to create more jobs, increase incomes, and decrease poverty.

Guided by the said program, the Philippines is on track to achieve a growth-enhancing fiscal consolidation, bringing multiple economic feats in 2024.

PH economy remains among the strongest in Asia

With robust capital formation and accelerated government spending, the Philippine economy expanded by 5.8% for the first three quarters of 2024 and remains among the fastest-growing economies in Asia, outpacing Malaysia (5.2%), Indonesia (5.0%), China (4.8%) and Singapore (3.8%).

The Philippine economy has already doubled its size since 2013 in terms of nominal GDP. By 2032, the Department of Finance’s (DOF) projections show that it can grow by another two-fold.

The country’s economic team remains optimistic about meeting the growth target of 6% to 6.5% for 2024. Growth assumptions for 2025 to 2028 have been given a wider band of 6% to 8%, underpinned by transformative structural reforms and the resilience to navigate evolving domestic and global challenges.

Gov’t on track to surpass revenue goal in 2024, revenue effort to be the highest in 27 years

Total revenue collection for 2024 is expected to increase to PHP 4.42 trillion by the end of the year, surpassing the full-year target of PHP 4.27 trillion. As a percentage of GDP, the emerging revenues will climb to 16.7%, the highest in the last 27 years or since 1997.

The DOF was able to marshall more resources to fund the nation’s 2024 budget without the need to impose new taxes on the people through more aggressive privatization of public assets; higher dividend contributions of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) by raising their remittance share from 50% to 75% of their earnings; and sweep of idle, unused, and excess funds of GOCCs.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) likewise improved their revenue administration efficiency by ensuring ease of paying taxes and accelerating their respective digitalization programs.

For the first 10 months of the year, the DOF has already collected PHP 3.77 trillion in total revenues—a double-digit increase of 16.8% over the same period last year.

Tax collections rose by 11.4% to PHP 3.23 trillion from January to October 2024, while non-tax revenues surged by 64.9%, totaling PHP 539.40 billion.

As a result, the revenue effort for the first three quarters of the year improved to 17.5% of GDP, up from 16.4% in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the fiscal deficit represents a manageable 5.1% of GDP for the first three quarters of 2024, lower than 5.7% in the same period last year.

The country’s debt also remains manageable at 61.3% of GDP as of the third quarter of 2024, with the majority, or around 68% of the portfolio sourced from the country’s robust domestic market.

PH secures upgrades on credit rating score and outlook

The country’s fiscal discipline and prudent debt management have earned the Marcos, Jr. administration its first-ever credit rating upgrade of A minus from R&I and an upgrade of outlook to Positive from S&P in 2024.

This means that the government and the private sector will continue to benefit from wider access to cheaper and more cost-effective borrowing costs.

The economic manager’s Road to A strategy as well as its strict adherence to the Medium-Term Fiscal Program will ensure more credit rating upgrades within the Marcos, Jr. administration’s term.

PH tops global ranking on debt transparency

With its prudent and transparent debt management, the Philippines scored the highest in debt transparency at 12.5 out of 13 against the 50 countries surveyed by the Institute of International Finance (IIF)’s 2024 in 2024.

Unemployment rate drops, middle class continues to grow

The sustained strength of the country’s labor market was evident in 2024 as the year-to-date unemployment rate dropped to 4.0%—well below the full-year target range of 4.4% to 4.7%.

With this, the total number of Filipinos employed rose to 48.6 million from January to October 2024.

Wage and salary workers, or those involved in formal and stable jobs, continued to make up the largest share of employed persons in the country at 63.8%.

PH achieves an all-time high GNI per capita, reflecting improved standards of living

Along with the strong labor market, the Philippines achieved an unprecedented gross national income (GNI) per capita of USD 4,335 or PHP 241,165 in 2023 as more and better economic opportunities are available for Filipinos.

GNI per capita measures the economic output per citizen, including both domestic and international earnings. A higher GNI per capita means greater economic prosperity and an increased standard of living.

This puts the Philippines on track to achieve an upper-middle-income status next year, which the World Bank defines as countries having GNI per capita ranging between USD 4,516 and USD 14,005 for 2025.

Prices remain broadly stable, growth momentum strengthened by rate cuts

The country’s year-to-date inflation rate of 3.2% has stayed firmly within the DBCC’s assumption of 3.1% to 3.3%, reflecting the government’s effective interventions to ease supply pressures for key food items, especially rice.

In particular, rice inflation has continued its downtrend from 22.5% in June 2024 to 5.1% in November this year as a result of the implementation of Executive Order (EO) No. 62 in July 2024, which lowered import tariffs on rice.

The continued drop in rice prices, including the set up of more Kadiwa Stores nationwide, has benefitted the bottom 30% of households as headline inflation for the said group declined to 2.9% in November 2024 from 5.8% in July.

The overall inflation rate is expected to average 3.1% to 3.3% for the full year, significantly lower than 6% in 2023.

This favorable domestic inflation outlook allowed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to be the first in ASEAN to start its monetary policy easing, cutting policy interest rates to a cumulative 50 basis points (bps) and slashing reserve requirements across all financial intermediaries by 250 bps to boost growth.

New laws signed to boost investments and revenues, revitalize tourism, and strengthen food security

The DOF’s priority reform measures advanced well in Congress in 2024. Among those successfully enacted that will fast-track the entry of more foreign investors into the Philippines include the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE) Act and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code.

Meanwhile, among the priority revenue reform measures signed into law were the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act, the Value-Added Tax (VAT) on Digital Services, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, and the VAT Refund Mechanism for Non-Resident Tourists Act. All these will boost revenue collection and bring the Philippine tax system to par with global standards.

The President also signed into law the Amendments to the Agricultural Tariffication Act which enhances the capabilities of the government to protect Filipino consumers by extending market interventions to stabilize rice prices during periods of volatility and to prevent manipulative pricing and hoarding.

The rest of the DOF’s revenue reforms are in the advanced stages in Congress, namely the Rationalization of the Fiscal Mining Regime, the Excise Tax on Single-Use Plastic Bags, Package 4 of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, and the Motor Vehicle Road User’s Tax.

More Filipinos lifted out of poverty in 2023, on track to reduce incidence to a single-digit by 2028

All the strategic growth-enhancing initiatives undertaken by the Marcos, Jr. administration are aimed at achieving the most important number, which is cutting poverty incidence to a single digit or 9% by 2028.

In 2023, the administration successfully reduced poverty incidence among Filipino individuals to 15.5% from 18.1% in 2021, and the pre-pandemic rate of 16.7% in 2018. This means that 2.40 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty from 2021 to 2023.

The figure is lower than the government’s target of 16.0% and 16.4% for the year, putting it on track to hit its goal of lifting eight million more Filipinos out of the poverty line by 2028.

A recent Macro Poverty Outlook for the Philippines released by the World Bank projected that the country could cut its poverty incidence to 9.3% in 2026—two years ahead of the 2028 target with the continuous improvement in the labor market and the easing of the inflation rate.