Philippines

Philippines: Moderate Spending, Reserve Cushion, and Stale Energy Data

The Philippine economy was valued at $461.6 billion in 2024, per the World Bank's WDI series, with GDP per capita of $3,985 across a population of 115.8 million the same year. Government debt is projected by the IMF's World Economic Outlook at 60.2 percent of GDP for 2026, a mid-range figure, while foreign reserves stood at $92.3 billion in 2025 per IMF IFS data — a reserve base equal to a substantial share of the debt projection.

Military Spending and Capacity

SIPRI's 2025 figures put military spending at $6.4 billion, or 1.295 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series. That ratio should not be recalculated against the World Bank GDP figure, as the two use different GDP estimates. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 145,000 active personnel in 2022 and a CINC score of 0.00684 the same year — both three years behind the SIPRI spending figure, with no more recent update available here.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 data score the Philippines' electoral democracy index at 0.392 and liberal democracy index at 0.291, with state capacity at 0.386. The three measures are relatively close to one another, unlike countries where electoral and liberal scores diverge sharply.

Energy

Primary energy consumption was 2.3492 exajoules in 2024, per Our World in Data, with electricity generation of 123.12 TWh — though that electricity figure is dated 2025, a year later than the primary energy figure. More notably, the oil and gas production figures — 12.672 TWh and 33.301 TWh respectively — are both dated 2016, nearly a decade old. Those figures say little about current Philippine oil and gas output and should not be treated as representative of 2024 or 2025 conditions.

Data Gaps

This record contains no personnel or CINC data more recent than 2022, and no production figures for oil or gas newer than 2016 — a gap of roughly nine years on the energy-production side specifically. No nuclear or alliance data are present. The 2026 debt figure is an IMF projection rather than a recorded outturn and should be read as a forward estimate. Any reading of the Philippines as energy self-sufficient or import-dependent cannot be supported from the 2016 production figures alone.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, IMF IFS, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy)