Indeed, the economy has chalked up impressive gains this year and the Philippines is experiencing its most stable macroeconomic environment in a decade. II. Current state of economic gains  Let me begin by having a few cracks at describing the headway that has been made in consolidating macroeconomic gains this year. •  The economy has been expanding quite briskly.
In the second quarter of 2007, GDP expanded by a faster-than-expected rate of 7.5 percent, outperforming the 5.5 percent growth achieved in the same quarter in 2006 and bringing the first semester 2007 growth to 7.3 percent. •  This strong growth has been achieved against a generally benign inflation environment.