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Philippines The Business Elite
The Aquino assassination shattered business confidence at a
time when the economy was suffering from years of mismanagement
under the cronies and unfavorable international conditions.
Business leaders, especially those excluded from regime-nurtured
monopolies, feared that a continuation of the status quo would
cause a collapse of the economy. Their apprehensions were shared
by foreign creditors and international agencies such as the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF--see Glossary).
Inflation and
unemployment were soaring. The country's GNP became stagnant by
1983, and then it contracted--by -6.8 percent in 1984, and -3.8
percent in 1985, according to the IMF. There was a steep decline
both in domestic and foreign investment. Outward capital flows
reached as high as US$2 million a day in the panic that followed
Aquino's death. The Makati area of Manila, with its banks,
brokerage houses, luxury hotels, and upper-class homes, became a
center of vocal resistance to the Marcos regime.
Data as of June 1991
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