Philippines

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia and a unitary presidential republic. Its capital is Manila and its largest city is Quezon City, both in Metro Manila. Wikipedia counts about 7,641 islands and gives a population of 112,729,484 from the 2024 census. The currency is the Philippine peso.

Independence from Spain was declared on 12 June 1898, and the United States recognised Philippine independence on 4 July 1946. The country is a founding member of ASEAN. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, is Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as Bongbong Marcos.

The Philippines is in the news because its statistics agency reported on 9 November 2026 that gross domestic product grew 2.1 per cent year on year in the third quarter, below the 3.0 per cent that economists polled by Reuters had expected, according to Interaksyon. Growth for the second quarter was revised up to 2.4 per cent from 2.3 per cent, and seasonally adjusted output rose 0.1 per cent on the previous quarter, against 0.6 per cent in the second quarter.

Sources: Wikipedia: Philippines, Britannica: Philippines, Interaksyon: Philippines third-quarter GDP