Philippines

When: 2024–2025

Purpose: Build national capacity to use OG-PHL for sustainable recovery planning, fiscal policy analysis, macroeconomic policy research, and evidence-based simulations of reforms affecting public finances and long-term growth.

What happened: UN DESA held launch workshops in Manila in August 2024, followed by a second in-depth training workshop in October 2024 and a user meeting in March 2025. Public materials identify policy applications around infrastructure investment, education, carbon tax options, pension changes, social benefit financing, debt sustainability, and model enhancements, especially to the demographic module. The repository example compares a baseline with a reform that sets the corporate income tax rate to 20% and raises the steady-state debt-to-GDP target to 115%.

Key insights: The Philippines work shows how OG-PHL can support policy formulation by comparing baseline and reform paths for GDP, investment, consumption, wages, interest rates, labor, capital, and tax revenues. The country workshops also showed strong institutional interest in using OG-PHL for fiscal and macroeconomic policy research. Key repository graphs compare baseline and reform paths for GDP, consumption, capital, labor, interest rates, and wages.

Resources: Repository, model documentation, and training documentation.

Models: OG-Core

Stakeholders: UN DESA, Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD), UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, University of the Philippines, ACALEO School of Government, University of the Philippines Visayas, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, Ateneo de Davao University, University of San Carlos, and Ateneo de Manila University.