Genuine progress indicator
Most economists assess progress in people's welfare by comparing the gross domestic product over time—that is, by adding up the annual dollar value of all goods and services produced within a country over successive years. However, GDP was not intended to be used for such purpose. It is prone to productivism or consumerism, over-valuing production and consumption of goods, and not reflecting improvement in human well-being. It also does not distinguish between money spent for new production and money spent to repair negative outcomes from previous expenditure. For example, it would treat as equivalent one million dollars spent to build new homes and one million dollars spent in aid relief to those whose homes have been destroyed, despite these expenditures arguably not representing the same kind of progress. This is relevant for example when considering the true costs of development that destroys wetlands and hence exacerbate flood damages. Simon Kuznets, the inventor of the concept of GDP, noted in his first report to the US Congress in 1934:the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income. If the GDP is up, why is America down? Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.
External debt of the Philippines
The Debt-to-GDP ratio is the proportion of a country's federal debt in relation to its total output or GDP. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the ratio of what the Philippines owes from foreign creditors (external debt) to what it has been producing (GDP) has gone through a significant growth from 61.6% in 1999 to 68.2% in 2001. The ratio fluctuated until 2004 when it started a steady decline up to 2008. It rose again to 38.4% in 2009, but eventually fell down to 36.9% in 2010. Up until 2015, the trend was declining, with a 27.3% ratio at the end of 2014. Figures have generally been fluctuating (in terms of public and private external debt). Governments basically aim for low debt-to-GDP ratios because such is an indicator that the economy is producing high enough output to pay off its borrowings.