Lew

Our Economy seems to be taking off.

GDP is up
Inflation is down
Peso is up
Export is up
Foreign investment is up
As well as local investments.

If the trend continues, we could qualify on 1st world category by 2020 as projected by the government. Right now, Philippines is proud after it has upgraded itself to "middle income category", joining Thailand, China, and Malaysia. So much catching up to be done though..

Lew

GMA: RP now has ‘Second World’ per capita income
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?...03_sept29_2006

AT THE pace the economy is growing and the clip at which families are getting out of poverty, the poverty rate in the Philippines may just be halved by the year 2015.

President Gloria Macagapal Arroyo gave this optimistic prediction Wednesday night as she pointed out that the poverty incidence in the country is going down at the rate of one percentage point per year.

Mrs. Arroyo said it would not be far-fetched to see the poverty level being reduced from 34 percent in the year 2000 to 17 percent by 2015.

She said the peso remains strong, the stock market is robust and the per capita income of Filipinos has risen to $1,400 this year.

“The poverty level has been going down by one percentage point every year. That means that by 2015, we will be able to reduce poverty level to one half of what it was in the year 2000 in accordance with our Millennium Development Goals,” the President told public officials, business and political leaders and media practitioners at the annual Gridiron of the National Press Club at the Manila Hotel.

With per capita income reaching $1,400, the President said the Philippines will graduate from being a Third World country to a Second World or middle-class country.

“If we continue a trajectory of one percent decline in the poverty level every year, we can hopefully reach First World status by the year 2020,” the President said.

Exhorting journalists to always uphold fairness, justice, duty and responsibility, Mrs. Arroyo said the press in the country is so free and powerful that it can spur or stunt the growth of the economy and even cause the downfall of governments.

“If the military has the power to topple governments in other countries, in the Philippines, that power belongs to the media,” the Chief Executive said. “You have the power to make or break an economy, because you are so powerful that your prophesies become self-fulfilling.”

The press, she said, “can make the sun shine” and “to make the stock market go down.”

The President thanked the NPC for supporting the Melo Commission which is investigating the killings of journalists and political activities.

In the same affair, NPC President Roy Mabasa urged the President to certify as urgent the bill decriminalizing libel which has been pending with Congress for several years now.

“Decriminalizing libel makes the press unfettered, healthy and vibrant for the good of our society and our country,” Mabasa said.

The NPC president said a criminal libel is not consistent with a democratic society like the Philippines because public servants should be subjected to greater scrutiny. However, he allayed apprehensions that this may spawn a “tyranny of the press.”

jhaelsin

Today's close: P50.02
Yesterday's close: P50.01

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Lew

November 24, 2006

Peso today: 49.71
Yesterday: 49.72

animasola

As of today (morning):

PHP 47.230 = $ 1