Philippines
Economic and trade overview
Key figures
Economy 2011 Trade 2011 (USD billion)
GDP (USD) 225 bn Goods Exports 39
GDP per capita (USD) 2,370 Imports 55
GDP volume growth (year-on-year) + 3.9% Net – 17
Population 94.85m Services Exports 16
MMR (year average) 4.56% Imports 12
Exchange rate PHP / USD (year average) 43.313 Net + 5
BoP (goods, services & income) as % of GDP – 4.7% Source: IFS, IMF, January 2013International/Regional memberships
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC): since 6–7 November 1989.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN): founding member since
8 August 1967.
International Monetary Fund (IMF):
since 27 December 1945.
World Trade Organization (WTO):
since 1 January 1995.
Government trade policy
The Philippines pursues many of its trade
objectives through its membership of ASEAN
(www.aseansec.org) as well as other
bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
As a member of ASEAN, the Philippines is
committed to the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA) Common Effective Preferential
Tariff (CEPT) scheme. This lowers all
intra-regional tariffs on trade between the
Philippines and ASEAN member states
(Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) to
between zero and 5 percent.
The executive and legislative branches of
government jointly hold responsibility for the
formulation of trade policies in the Philippines.
ASEAN member states have a number of
free trade agreements (FTAs) with regional
economies such as South Korea, China,
Japan, India, and Australia and New
Zealand. ASEAN is also in negotiations for
an FTA with the European Union.
National export credit insurance provider:
Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency
(PhilEXIM — http://www.philexim.gov.ph),
also known as the Trade and Investment
Development Corporation of the Philippines
(Tidcorp).
Special Economic Zones within the
Philippines are also known as Ecozones.
These zones are used either as export
processing or free trade zones. There
are currently 277 zones operated by
the Philippine Economic Zone Authority
(PEZA — http://www.peza.gov.ph.Currency and exchange controls
Official currency: Philippine peso (PHP).
Exchange rate arrangement: free floating.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP —
http://www.bsp.gov.ph),,) the central bank, administers
exchange controls in the Philippines and
formulates foreign exchange policy.
All transactions that affect trade balances
must be conducted through the formal
exchange market.
With the exception of imports and exports to
and from ASEAN countries, the use of PHP
for international payments and receipts is
not permitted.