Camille Naredo

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. speaks before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and answers queries on various national and international issues during FOCAP's Presidential Luncheon at a hotel in Manila on August 14, 2026. Noel B. Pabalate, PPA Pool

Article (news)

MARCOS

Katrina Domingo

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/178689021020920260814-marcos-focap-manla-PPA-NP10.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. speaks before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and answers queries on various national and international issues during FOCAP&#x27;s Presidential Luncheon at a hotel in Manila on August 14, 2026. Noel B. Pabalate, PPA Pool"/>President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. speaks before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and answers queries on various national and international issues during FOCAP&#x27;s Presidential Luncheon at a hotel in Manila on August 14, 2026. Noel B. Pabalate, PPA Pool</div>MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has described the Philippines&#x27; recent growth rate as &quot;very disappointing&quot; after the country&#x27;s gross domestic product tumbled to 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the slowest since the pandemic.&quot;The growth rate is, of course, very disappointing,&quot; Marcos Jr. told reporters at his luncheon with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).&quot;But if we look at the basic policies that we have undertaken and that we have made, the policy decisions that we have made, that they were effective until this energy crisis arose,&quot; he said, noting that &quot;the numbers are still reasonable.&quot;<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/8/10/rate-hike-or-not-bsp-reviews-new-economic-data-1535">READ: Rate hike or not? BSP reviews new economic data</a></div>The government has delayed the bidding of some of its projects this year to sift through possible leakages, especially after a massive corruption scandal in the infrastructure sector marred last year&#x27;s budget, the Chief Executive said.&quot;Growth rate is dependent – is heavily dependent on public spending, and that has been delayed,&quot; he said.&quot;With what happened last year, where we had to re-examine the budget very, very closely, those projects, those contracts were not bidded out, and they were bidded out towards the end of the first quarter of this year. That is what happened. That&#x27;s why it delayed the public spending,&quot; he said. So far, the Philippines is &quot;only at a shortfall of about 7 percent year on year in terms of public spending,&quot; the President said.&quot;We will make that up for the rest of the year,&quot; he said.&quot;I am confident we will be able to catch up and exceed the year-on-year public spending by the last quarter of this year, and the effects of that will show in terms of the growth rate,&quot; he said.Marcos also attributed the slower growth rate to the public&#x27;s reluctance to spend due to uncertainties brought by oil price shocks linked to the war affecting oil-producing nations in the Gulf region.&quot;That volatility erodes confidence, and that erosion in confidence means people do not spend their money because they don&#x27;t know what is going to happen next month or two months, three months from now,&quot; he said.&quot;That is what we are having to deal with, and what we are trying to do with the economy is to bring stability back into our economic system so that people, households, business people can plan,&quot; he said, noting that his administration has extended several cash aid and fuel subsidy packages to indigent sectors to cushion the impact of the oil crisis. &quot;We focus on those who were spending a large percentage of their income on precisely food and fuel,&quot; he said.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/8/6/no-change-in-q1-gdp-figure-growth-rate-kept-at-2-8-percent-1133">READ: No change in Q1 GDP figure, growth rate kept at 2.8 percent</a></div>The same goes for the US dollar, Marcos said when asked about the Philippine peso&#x27;s weak trading against other global currencies.&quot;As you know, the dollar is usually regarded as a safe harbor during times of uncertainty, and that&#x27;s why people have invested in, that&#x27;s why the foreign exchange for the dollars – the dollar value has increased vis-à-vis relative to many, many, in fact, most currencies around the world because of that,&quot; he said.&quot;The peso, we are trying to defend the peso, but it&#x27;s not something that we are spending all our money on at all, by any means,&quot; he said.The Philippines is looking for these economic hurdles to ease once the Strait of Hormuz and other oil shipping routes are cleared for access again, Marcos said.&quot;We hope that this is not a new normal, that it will be like this forevermore,&quot; he said.&quot;We are hoping that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz improves. We hope that the situation in all of the waterways that are being used to transport petroleum products are stabilized so that we can now count on some assumptions that we can make so that we can plan on the national and economic development,&quot; he said. &quot;So there are many, many moving parts here, many of them out of our control, but we are trying to be as agile as possible and to prepare in the longer term for the possibility of this happening again.&quot;While this has yet to happen, the Philippines has diversified its options &quot;in terms of agreements, economic agreements, trade agreements&quot; and is &quot;now are counting on as regular suppliers for petroleum products, for food, trade in general,&quot; the President said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has described the Philippines' recent growth rate as "very disappointing" after the country's gross domestic product tumbled to 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the slowest since the pandemic.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has described the Philippines' recent growth rate as "very disappointing" after the country's gross domestic product tumbled to 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the slowest since the pandemic.

Marcos says PH growth rate 'very disappointing,' but sees higher spending to bolster numbers by year end

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Marcos says PH growth rate 'very disappointing,' but sees higher spending to bolster numbers by year end

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 16, 2026 10:24 PM PHT

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Updated August 17, 2026 01:18 AM PHT

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Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

economy

growth rate

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