But despite all that, it was, on balance, another good year for our economy in general, and the banking sector in particular. The Philippine economy continued to expand, with 2015 inflation settling at 1.4%, our lowest in 20 years.
Many of those who dropped out of the labor force may be discouraged workers. Further strengthening of the economy will likely pull some of these workers back into the labor market, although skills and networks may have depreciated some over the past years. Another factor that may be contributing to a slowdown in longer-run output growth is a decline in the rate of investment.