East Asia & Pacific · GDP rank #28

Philippines

PH · PHP @ 0.0162/USD

Tab 04

Economics

The macro backdrop that actually bends payment behaviour. Nominal GDP, real growth, CPI, policy rate, and FX volatility set the backdrop; interchange, MDR, FX regime, and capital-control posture set the industry-specific dynamics.

Remittances from overseas Filipinos remain ~8% of GDP — fourth-largest recipient globally after India, Mexico, China. BSP held the policy rate at 5.0% in May 2026 after February's 25bp cut.

Nominal GDP

$481B

Real GDP growth

5.6%

CPI inflation

2.7%

Policy rate

Unemployment

3.9%

30-day FX volatility

2.9%

Remittance inflows

$38.3B

Remittance outflows

$0.1B

FX posture

How the currency is managed

The FX regime and capital-control posture together determine how much of cross-border flow is priced against the interbank and how much is administratively steered.

FX regime: free float with BSP smoothing intervention
Capital controls: partial — FX reporting and registration requirements; outbound portfolio investment permissions required above defined thresholds per resident

30-day currency volatility

0.0%benchmark 2.5%2.9%

Scale 0-15%. Benchmark 2.5% marks the approximate median across G10 majors.