The Philippine peso appreciation has been creating serious problems for the economy because of the high degree of unemployment and poverty incidence in the country. More specifically, it threatens contraction of the export sector through loss of competitiveness. The paper tracks the exchange...

The most important role that fiscal policy can play with regard to growth is to ensure macroeconomic stability. But despite two highly visible tax reform programs in less than two decades, the Philippines is now in the midst of a fiscal crisis. This has been brought about by pressures on the...

The large and unsustainable deficits of the early 1980s have reemerged in recent years. This paper aims to answer two questions: What has caused the poor fiscal performance of the Philippines in recent years? Is it the result of unfortunate events, macroeconomic shocks or misdirected fiscal...

The paper traces the roots of the present fiscal problem and concludes that it is largely attributable to the deterioration of the national government's revenue effort. On the other hand, because the government relied heavily on across-the-board budget cuts in order to maintain some semblance of...

Twelve years into the implementation of the Local Government Code of 1991, it is but opportune to assess how the key features of this landmark legislation has contributed to (or detracted from) achieving the balance between local autonomy and accountability. The literature on fiscal...

In many countries, Grameen replication has not fared well in terms of outreach and sustainability. There is no country where the Grameen Bank, reaching two million poor women in groups of five and centers of 30 in Bangladesh, has been truly replicated. In The Philippines, rural banks and...

Cet article présente un exemple de commercialisation de la microfinance aux Philippines, sous l’égide d’un projet de reproduction de l’approche « Grameen Bank ». Selon l’idée initiale du projet, de modestes prêts devaient être fournis aux foyers les plus pauvres par des ONG et des...

The Philippines, a country of great promise in the 1950s, has greatly lagged behind many other Asian countries. Between 1991 and 1994 urban poverty declined from 26% to 29%; but rural poverty virtually stagnated at a much higher rate: 55% and 54%, respectively. Poverty lending programs were...

Values are to a society what character is to a person: it reveals his true inner self, yet is difficult to describe in exact terms. Moreover, a person's character may show in his actions in various, sometimes contradictory ways so that it may be difficult to induce a person's character from his...