\n\tMANILA: Over ten years ago, when Fatima Macud brought home roughly 30,000 pesos ($509) a month, the money was enough to cover her expenses and still leave room for savings.<\/p>\n
\n\tThough she now earns 45,000 pesos, Macud finds herself unable to save any money as she struggles with rising prices to cover daily spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYes, I got a salary increase, but the thing is, the cost of living here in the city also increased,\u201d the 52-year-old resident of Metro Manila told Arab News on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNow for me, it barely covers my basic needs because the price of commodities just keeps rising \u2014 goods, services, everything \u2026 Everything feels way too expensive \u2026 Now, I can\u2019t save money at all. It\u2019s not enough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Philippine economy has slowed to the weakest pace in nearly 15 years outside of the pandemic, with data from the Philippines Statistics Authority showing just 3.0 percent growth in October to December, compared with 5.3 percent from the same period a year earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe full-year growth in 2025 settled at 4.4 percent, below the 5.7 percent posted in 2024 and lower than the government\u2019s revised target of at least 4.8 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was the result of \u201cseveral converging factors,\u201d Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese include the adverse economic effects of weather and climate-related disruptions. Admittedly, the flood control corruption scandal also weighed on business and consumer confidence,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut on the ground, Filipinos were more concerned about their day-to-day lives, and the state of the economy has begun to spark new worries about the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI am worried about my future,\u00a0 especially my retirement. If the government is in a bankruptcy state or ends up in financial trouble, will they be able to pay my pension? Can I still avail the free health services with full benefits?\u201d Macud said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m also worried about my family\u2019s future; the rising cost of living and the lack of employment opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOlga Resureccion, a 52-year-old worker in Manila, is among those who believes the government has been \u201ctrying its best,\u201d and is keeping her hopes alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t lose hope,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people are still able to provide for themselves and their family. Like (me), I\u2019m able to provide. You just really need to work hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYet for entrepreneurs such as John Paul Maunes, the economic slowdown was taking a toll on his small restaurant in Cebu City, as he struggled with increasing prices of supplies, taxes and cost of government permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think people from the ground, especially business owners, are really struggling right now. Particularly those who are SMEs (small and medium enterprises),\u201d Maunes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe cannot increase our prices the way we want it because we\u2019ll lose our customers. And at the same time, we are also struggling on how we can cope with the rising prices of commodities. Plus, the government permits and taxes are increasing every year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOver the years, the 41-year-old has had to lay off employees to survive, while hoping for more government support and opportunities through economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe have this fear of impending doom as small business owners \u2026 With the increasing prices and economic impact on us on the ground, it\u2019s a huge challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re just hoping that better things will come for our government, for our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANILA: Over ten years ago, when Fatima Macud brought home roughly 30,000 pesos ($509) a month, the money…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-733488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115990942460504170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}