Understanding Macroeconomics Condition of a Country

WHERE WERE YOU ABLE TO FIND THE DATA SETS?

            I was able to find the data sets to use for this paper in the internet sites and a book of macroeconomics for the technical terms and further explanation of my answers. The data sets of my selected country, which was the Philippines, came from the three internet sources, which I considered as reliable and credible enough to use as references.

            The first site was the site of the The Economist, wherein there were articles pertaining to the economic condition of different countries in the world. Under the continent of Asia, I found there an article discussing the current economic situation of the Philippines. It gave statistics and other vital information in economic aspect of the country. The second site was the site of the National Statistics Office of the Philippines. It merely indicated in textual and tabular form all the data gathered from a census such as unemployment rate, employment rate, growth rate, inflation rate, Gross Domestic Product, population, and others.

            The third one that I have cited as source was the site of the The Utrecht, Faculty Education, which entitled “the Philippines.” This site was containing articles with regards to the different information about the country such as demographic profile, history, and of course, the current events in the country especially in political and economic system. It was much like of the first site The Economist, the only difference was this site mainly discussed only about Philippines.

            However, the fourth source I have used for this paper was a book entitled “Macroeconomics” written by three authors namely Campbell R. McConnell, Stanley L. Brue, and Campbell R. C.. This was where I referred for the analysis of relationships of different variables needed to discuss in the paper.

            I have selected the population growth and the unemployment in the country of the Philippines as the variables of economic growth in the same country. Before hand, the population growth could be considered in terms of rate so as to measure the average increase of the population year to year. Further, the unemployment is a situation in a country whereas citizens are unemployed, thus, they have no source of living.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE VARIABLES THAT YOU SELECTED AND THE ECONOMY?

            Meanwhile, these two variables have impact to the economic system. So to say, the population growth has both negative and positive impact. We could also consider it as relationship to the economic aspect. Like for example, if the growth rate of population continuously increases, it only means that there could be much of labor force in the country. It is good to say that since the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country would also increase, thus, the economic system would also in positive direction. In short, this aspect of growth rate is directly proportional to the growth of economy. On the other hand, assuming that the growth rate is increasing from year to year, this only means that more people would have to find work as source of their living. Other consequences are the overcrowding and lack of settlements. This could also affect the settlements of the firms, which more likely, the commercial area, could be pre-occupied by the residential area. In a nut shell, this aspect of the increasing in growth rate has negative impact to the economy, thus, it is inversely related to the growth of economy. Summarizing the two points, one side is that if there is an increase in growth rate, there could also be an increase in economic level of the country, and the other side is that if there is an increase in growth rate in the country, there would be a declining trend in the economy. Implicitly, there are such factors that are needed to be considered so as to determine the relationships of the variables to the economy.

The other variable that I have selected is the unemployment in the Philippines. Let us say that there is high unemployment rate in the Philippines, given the fact that the employees and workers are the main ones who contributed for the increase of the GDP and Gross National Product (GNP) as well, there would be low GDP and GNP, too. And considering that both of the two products are main determinants of the economic status of one country, we could say that there would also be low economy for the country of the Philippines. In short, if there is many unemployed Filipino citizen, there is low economy. And if there is low rate of unemployed Filipino citizen, there is high economy. Therefore, the unemployment is inversely related with the economy of a country.

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE IN THE DATA SETS? SUPPORT YOUR ASSERTIONS OF TRENDS WITH STATISCAL EVIDENCE?

Basically, the trends that I have observed based on the data that I have gathered is that when the population increases or the growth rate increases, the unemployment rate also increases, thus the economy declines.

During the year 1970s, the Philippines is considered richer than the other neighbor countries in Asia. However, the growth rate continuously increased up to 20 % of the population every year. We could imply here that the population booms and the search for jobs is merely intense. Another implication here is that the business sector of the country might not be able to cater the number of jobs required by the population of the Filipino citizen, thus, many people could be unemployed. However, as of this year 2007, the inflation rate in economy lowers to 2.6 % from the 2.8 % last year 2004. The analysis is that there is a slow recovery of the economy of the Philippines, such that within three years time, only 0.2 % inflation rate lows.

In the present time, there are lots of Filipinos who forced to work abroad so as to earn enough money for their family. In a statistics, the 10 % of the Filipinos population, which is 76, 504, 077, but that was a census as of May 2000. To think of another seven years is added in the duration, it might increase into an estimation of more or less 80 million Filipinos nowadays.

The unemployment data as of April 2007 is rated from 8.2 in the year 2006 lowered to 7.4 in the present time. Slowly, the unemployment rate in the Philippines is adjusting

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE IN THE DATA SETS? SUPPORT YOUR ASSERTIONS OF TRENDS WITH STATISCAL EVIDENCE?

positively in economic system. The currencies from the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) are helping a lot tom increase the GDP of the country. According to the tally of National Statistics Office, the 11 % of the GDP came from the OFWs, which is equivalent to $ 12.8 billion. Though employment inside the country’s business firms is still developing, the employment of the OFWs outside Philippines contributes a lot to the economy.

Nowadays, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo includes to the goal of her administration that by 2020, the Philippines would belong to those wealthy countries not just in Asia but in the world. Though manifested by American based call centers, such that many middle aged citizens are employed, the rapid increase in population is a worry for the recovery of the Philippine Economy since its consequence is another case of not enough jobs for the Filipino people.

References:

McConell, C. R., C. R. C., and S. Brue. Macroeconomics. 6th ed. February 28, 2004. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Erichta, C. N. “Employment Rate in April2007 is higher compared to rate in last year.” Retrieved on Sept. 6, 2007on the site of National Statistics Office of the Philippines from the World Wide Web: www.census.gov.ph/data/pressrelease/2007/lf0702.html.

“The Jeepney Economy Revs up.” August 16, 2007Retrieved on Sept. 6, 2007on the site of The Economist from the World Wide Web: http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story-id=

Retrieved on Sept. 6, 2007on the site of The Utracht  from the World Wide Web: www.philippines.hvu,nlfacts.htm