Philippines

If you are interested in development economics, here is an interesting puzzle.

According to conventional wisdom, investment is a key ingredient for economic growth. If you invest, you grow - not immediately of course, as everything takes time. If you don’t invest, your economy stagnates.

Basically - so the wisdom goes - the accumulation of physical (e.g.: infrastructure – roads, dams) and human (i.e.: education and health) capital brings about growth and prosperity.

So, what is happening in the Philippines? The Filipino economy is growing fast, but - over the last few years - domestic investment shrunk as a share of GDP. Being an open and growing economy, one must wonder: why the decline? (click on the graph in the top left corner).