Corruption cuts economic growthEconomic growth slowed down in 2025 to just 4.6 percent, down markedly from the hefty 5.7 percent in the whole of 2024. The four percent quarterly GDP growth rate in the third and fourth quarters of 2025 is the lowest in the past two years. Originally, the government had targeted a GDP growth rate for 2025 of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent. In terms of lost economic production, the loss was 0.9 percentage point based on the low projected growth rate of 5.5 percent, and 1.9 percentage points based on the high growth target of 6.5 percent. In 2027, we will recover with a growth rate of 6.2 percent, maybe.”For the three years – 2025 (4.6 growth), 2026 (5.4), and 2027 (6.2) – the average annual growth rate will be 5.4 percent, a poor growth rate given that we want to be in upper-middle-income status and reduce poverty incidence to single digits, from the present 12 percent, by 2028.

Source: Philippine Star January 07, 2026 16:39 UTC