More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
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| https://mb.com.ph/2026/08/04/goldman-sachs-philippine-growth-hits-post-pandemic-low-on-weak-spending |
Economic growth in the second quarter of 2026 may have slowed further to a post-pandemic low as Filipinos pumped the brakes on borrowing and spending, while public expenditure remained lackluster.
In a report obtained by the Manila Bulletin, US financial giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. noted that Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) growth likely decelerated to 2.7 percent in the second quarter from an already five-year low of 2.8 percent in the first quarter.
“High-frequency indicators point to softer consumer credit growth, suggesting that weaker sentiment is weighing on household spending,” wrote Hui Shan, chief China economist at Goldman Sachs.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that domestic bank lending growth slowed to a four-month low in June as household and corporate borrowers adopted a more cautious stance, dampening overall credit demand.
Outstanding loans from universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) expanded by 9.8 percent in June, cooling from this year’s peak of 12.1 percent in May. This marked the slowest pace of expansion since February’s 9.6 percent print.
Household spending growth had already plunged to a five-year low of three percent in the first quarter.
Private spending was further constrained by elevated fuel costs, which ate into disposable income that might otherwise have gone toward discretionary purchases. “Higher fuel-related expenses are likely crowding out discretionary spending in other categories,” Hui Shan said.
Fuel prices turned highly volatile after US-Iran military hostilities flared up in late February, with no clear timeline for resolution. A recent re-escalation in conflict has triggered another surge in global oil prices.
The Philippines’ vulnerability to Middle East tensions stems from its status as a net oil importer, sourcing nearly all of its crude oil requirements from the Gulf region.
During periods of heightened conflict, the Strait of Hormuz—a vital chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies passes—faces serious risk of disruption, leaving oil-importing nations exposed to supply restrictions or blockades by Iran.
Goldman Sachs also highlighted that construction, typically a key growth driver, lost momentum during the period. “Construction activity also appears to have lost momentum, as elevated input costs continue to weigh on project execution,” the investment bank noted.
“Meanwhile, we see little evidence of a meaningful rebound in government capital expenditure, which remains well below its historical run rate,” it added.
Attention now turns to the government’s fiscal response as it tries to engineer a rebound from the late-2025 economic slowdown, when infrastructure spending was severely curtailed by a high-profile flood control corruption scandal.
This muted growth trajectory complicates the monetary authorities' policy stance, particularly as consumer prices remain elevated.
Goldman Sachs expects headline inflation to moderate to 6.1 percent in July. If realized, this would mark the slowest rate of price increases in three months, down from April's peak of 7.2 percent.
Meanwhile, core inflation—which excludes volatile food and energy components—is projected to remain unchanged from the two-and-a-half-year high of 4.4 percent recorded in June. Because persistent inflation continues to pressure household demand, the BSP faces a delicate balancing act heading into its policy meeting.
Since Middle East hostilities erupted in the first quarter, the BSP has raised its benchmark rate twice, bringing it to 4.75 percent. The Monetary Board will hold its fourth policy meeting of the year on Aug. 27, followed by sessions on Oct. 22 and Dec. 17.
It's a continual uphill battle for the Philippines to fully recover and the Iran war is not helping.
The post-pandemic workplace continues to evolve.
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| https://tribune.net.ph/2026/08/07/third-place-is-new-workplace |
Flexible workspace operator The Flexi Group has expanded its footprint in the Philippines with the opening of Common Ground Digital Park McKinley Hill in Taguig City, its largest shared office in the country and the first under its Digital Park concept.
The launch also marks the start of a long-term partnership with Megaworld Corp. and MREIT Inc. to develop flexible workspaces across key business districts, reflecting the growing demand for office solutions that cater to hybrid work arrangements, startups and expanding enterprises.
Located at the Intellectual Property Center in McKinley Hill, the nearly 2,000-square-meter facility offers hot desks, fixed desks, private offices, meeting rooms and collaborative spaces designed for freelancers, startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and multinational companies. It also features an expandable boardroom for up to 32 participants, soundproof call booths, and an event space that can accommodate as many as 80 guests.
The workspace is equipped with high-speed Internet, digital booking capabilities and administrative support services, allowing businesses to scale operations without committing to long-term office leases.
“The pandemic changed how companies think about offices,” said Roegan Taron, country manager of Common Ground Philippines. “We’re seeing growing demand from businesses that want flexibility without committing to rigid corporate leases.”
The company says flexible workspaces have become increasingly attractive to businesses operating under hybrid arrangements, allowing employees to work closer to home while maintaining access to professional office facilities. Startups and regional companies are also looking beyond traditional central business districts for more cost-efficient locations that still offer premium amenities.
They have this backwards though. Your first home is where you live, your second home is work, and the third home or place is where you hang out to unwind like a cafe or bar. This company wants to transform the workspace into a cafe setting essentially.
For one proucer the pandemic exposed the primary barrier preventing Filipino creators from realizing their ideas specifically, the difficulty of securing financial backing and producers willing to front the money.
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| https://entertainment.inquirer.net/679900/emmy-winning-producer-comes-home-to-build-a-studio-for-filipino-stories |
Michael Carandang spent 20 years in American television, from “The Jerry Springer Show” to a Daytime Emmy with “The Tyra Banks Show.” On Monday, August 3, he stood in a Makati cinema to launch the studio he says will let the next generation of Filipino creators skip the trip abroad.
Goat Creative Studios, a Manila-based production company co-founded by Carandang and entrepreneur Jonathan M. Sterling, marked its official launch at Greenbelt Cinema 4 with a media event, an advance screening of its first reality docuseries “Celeste Unscripted,” and the reveal of its first documentary film: “Songbird,” on the life and career of Regine Velasquez.
The studio pairs Carandang’s two decades of experience in American and Philippine television with the backing of Sterling, an entrepreneur and investor who has lived in the Philippines for about five years — and who is clear about which of the two runs the shows.
“One of the things that I’m good at is identifying good people. When I first met with Michael and saw the vision that he had, and his reputation in the industry — I mean, he also has an Emmy, right? Let’s not underplay that. Mike will never put that out there, but he’s actually a very accomplished producer,” Sterling said.
That resumé runs deep. Carandang told the media he started his television dream on “The Jerry Springer Show,” won the Daytime Emmy as part of “The Tyra Banks Show,” and worked on “America’s Next Top Model” before moving back to the Philippines in 2012, where he directed around 17 installments of “Making MEGA,” the country’s first fashion documentary series.
But Carandang said the pandemic exposed the one problem that stops Filipino creators more than any other.
“If you ask a lot of creators, the number one thing that would stop them from actually making their idea into something real is: who’s going to pay for it?” he said. “We have so many amazing creators in the Philippines, so many talented producers. But nobody’s willing to front the money.”
That is the problem Sterling built Goat to solve. For him, the studio is as much an investment in the country as in a company.“I really want to invest in the Philippine economy and hire more and more Filipinos,” Sterling said. “There are so many talented people in this country. Rather than the top people going to Hollywood or LA to work, we offer them an option here — where you can work for a top-quality studio while still being in your local culture, around your friends and family.”
Producer Michael Carandang noted that while the Philippines has an abundance of amazing creators and talented producers, funding remains scarce.
Employment for the youth is at a new post-pandemic low.
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| https://mb.com.ph/2026/08/12/youth-job-market-stalls-across-region-including-philippinesilo |
Young people across South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific, the subregion that includes the Philippines, are facing worsening employment prospects as youth joblessness and disengagement rise despite the region’s relatively low headline unemployment rate, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In its Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future report published last Tuesday, Aug. 11, the Geneva-headquartered ILO said the global youth unemployment rate rose to 12.4 percent in 2025 from its post-pandemic low of 12.3 percent in 2023, equivalent to 67 million unemployed young people worldwide.
The global share of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) also increased to 20 percent in 2025 from 19.7 percent in 2023, adding nine million young people to bring the total number in NEET status to 257 million. More than two-thirds of young people in NEET status were women.
South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific was among the subregions where both the youth unemployment rate and NEET rate increased between 2023 and 2025, signaling a halt in the improvement of youth labor market conditions.
While the subregion’s youth unemployment rate remained below 10 percent in 2025, the ILO cautioned that low unemployment does not necessarily signal healthier labor market conditions, as it can mask deteriorating job quality or rising inactivity among young people.
Country-level data also showed that 11 of 22 economies in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific with available information recorded higher youth unemployment rates in 2025 than in 2023, while four were unchanged and seven posted lower rates.
The region also had one of the world’s widest disparities between youth and adult unemployment. Together with Southern Asia, South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific posted youth-to-adult unemployment rate ratios of between five and seven, meaning young people faced a risk of unemployment several times higher than adults.
First-time jobseekers were also encountering increasing difficulty entering the labor market. The share of unemployed people aged 20 to 29 who were first-time entrants in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific rose to 45.8 percent in the latest period from 44.3 percent around 2016.
The ILO said rising tertiary education attainment could partly explain later labor market entry, but evidence of high unemployment among those aged 20 to 24 and shrinking employment suggests that first-time job entrants are confronting an increasingly challenging labor market.
Young people with tertiary education in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific also had a higher unemployment rate of 6.9 percent in 2025, compared with 6.1 percent among those with secondary education and 3.7 percent among those with basic education.
At the same time, the region’s youth employment-to-population ratio (EPR) declined by more than two percentage points from 2023, while the longer-term decline from 2016 to 2025 pointed to greater competition among young people for available jobs. The ILO cautioned, however, that a lower EPR is not automatically negative because some young people may remain in education rather than enter the labor market.
For 2026, the ILO expects the subregion’s youth unemployment rate to ease to 9.1 percent from 9.5 percent in 2025 and further decline to nine percent in 2027.
The number of unemployed young people in the region is also projected to decline to 4.7 million in both 2026 and 2027 from 4.8 million in 2025.
However, the region’s NEET rate is projected to increase further to 16.4 percent in 2026 and 16.5 percent in 2027 from 16.3 percent in 2025, corresponding to 19.4 million and 19.7 million young people, respectively, from 19.2 million last year.
Another emerging challenge is artificial intelligence (AI). The ILO estimated that 8.1 percent of jobs held by people aged 15 to 29 in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific are among occupations with significant or high AI exposure, equivalent to about 7.16 million jobs.
The report called for integrated policies that create employment opportunities, prepare young people for work through quality education, apprenticeships and lifelong learning, improve employment services and active labor market programs, and strengthen social protection and support for disadvantaged groups.
The ILO also recommended a human-centered approach to AI governance, investment in both technical and social skills, stronger lifelong learning systems, modernized employment services, and wider social protection coverage.
Earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent in June, equivalent to 2.59 million unemployed Filipinos.
Many of the new entrants to the labor force were fresh graduates, with about half of the 639,000 new entrants still looking for jobs as of June.
But then again unemployment has risen across the board according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
