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Economy
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Economy
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Overview
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Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
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Philippine GDP growth, which cooled from 7.6% in 2010 to 3.9% in 2011, expanded to 6.6% in 2012 - meeting the government's targeted 6%-7% growth range. The 2012 expansion partly reflected a rebound from depressed 2011 export and public sector spending levels. The economy has weathered global economic and financial downturns better than its regional peers due to minimal exposure to troubled international securities, lower dependence on exports, relatively resilient domestic consumption, large remittances from four- to five-million overseas Filipino workers, and a rapidly expanding business process outsourcing industry. The current account balance had recorded consecutive surpluses since 2003; international reserves are at record highs; the banking system is stable; and the stock market was Asia's second best-performer in 2012. Efforts to improve tax administration and expenditure management have helped ease the Philippines' tight fiscal situation and reduce high debt levels. The Philippines received several credit rating upgrades on its sovereign debt in 2012, and has had little difficulty tapping domestic and international markets to finance its deficits. Achieving a higher growth path nevertheless remains a pressing challenge. Economic growth in the Philippines averaged 4.5% during the MACAPAGAL-ARROYO administration but poverty worsened during her term. Growth has accelerated under the AQUINO government, but with limited progress thus far in bringing down unemployment, which hovers around 7%, and improving the quality of jobs. Underemployment is nearly 20% and more than 40% of the employed are estimated to be working in the informal sector. The AQUINO administration has been working to boost the budgets for education, health, cash transfers to the poor, and other social spending programs, and is relying on the private sector to help fund major infrastructure projects under its Public-Private Partnership program. Long term challenges include reforming governance and the judicial system, building infrastructure, improving regulatory predictability, and the ease of doing business, attracting higher levels of local and foreign investments. The Philippine Constitution and the other laws continue to restrict foreign ownership in important activities/sectors (such as land ownership and public utilities).
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Environment
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Current issues
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endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack
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uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed areas; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds
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Geography
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Area
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Comparative
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slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
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slightly larger than Arizona
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Geography
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Area
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Comparative to US places
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slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US
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slightly larger than Arizona
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Geography
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Area
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Total
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14.06 million sq km
Ranked 6th.
47 times more
than
Philippines
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300,000 sq km
Ranked 74th.
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Geography
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Climate
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polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow
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tropical marine; northeast monsoon (November to April); southwest monsoon (May to October)
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Geography
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Coastline
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45,389 km
Ranked 7th.
25% more than
Philippines
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36,289 km
Ranked 5th.
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Geography
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Elevation extremes
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Highest point
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sea level 0 m
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Mount Apo 2,954 m
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Geography
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Geographic coordinates
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90 00 N, 0 00 E
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13 00 N, 122 00 E
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Geography
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Location
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body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle
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Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam
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Geography
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Natural hazards
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ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May
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astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis
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Geography
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Natural resources
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sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
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timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper
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Geography
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Terrain
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central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that, on average, is about 3 meters thick, although pressure ridges may be three times that thickness; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)
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mostly mountains with narrow to extensive coastal lowlands
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