It would not be a surprise to know from those on board the plane that flew President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit that the President was in good spirits during the flight.

When he took off for the US last Wednesday — his third trip to America since he assumed the presidency — he left a country in a buoyant state of affairs, with the economy posting higher GDP growth in the third quarter, the strongest among major Asian economies.

Growth during the period (July to September) beat forecasts and outpaced the preceding quarter's 4.3 percent.

The economy, according to the National Economic and Development Authority, continued to grow despite headwinds being experienced by the country.

"Year-on-year 5.9 percent GDP growth is a marked improvement from the 4.3 percent growth in the second quarter," said NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. 

"This performance makes our economy the fastest growing among major emerging economies in Asia that have released their Q3 GDP growth, with Vietnam at 5.3 percent, Indonesia and China at 4.9 percent, and Malaysia at 3.3 percent," he said.

He added that Philippine GDP growth in Q3 was "broadly based," with major economic sectors posting growth — agriculture at 0.9 percent, industry at 5.5 percent, and services at 6.8 percent.

On Tuesday, a day before the President left for the US, hefty rollbacks in the prices of petroleum products were effected, with prices cut by as much as P3 per liter due largely to a decline in global demand. The price of gasoline was slashed by P0.70 per liter, diesel by P3 per liter, and kerosene by P2.30 per liter.

The Department of Energy attributed the price reduction — the third consecutive week to see cuts in the prices of diesel and kerosene, and the second for gasoline — to a drop in demand in the US, along with weak exports from China.

Indeed, the desideratum is that the series of fuel price rollbacks will continue till yearend as market supply stabilizes, even as demand dwindles on the back of weaker requirements from China and as US crude inventory improves.

"The series of rollbacks observed was due to weaker manufacturing activities in China, which means regional fuel demand is weaker. US data also show an increase in crude oil inventory," pointed out Rino E. Abad, Director IV of the DoE's Oil Industry Management Bureau.

Likewise, he said, it is evident that no significant disruption in oil supply has so far occurred as a result of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that total foreign investment pledges approved by investment promotion agencies, or IPAs, in Q3, surged by 109.3 percent from the same period a year ago.

These IPAS, the PSA said, include the Authority of the Freeport Areas of Bataan, the Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority.

Altogether, these foreign investments approved by the IPAS in the third quarter came to a total of P27.30 billion, higher than the P13.05 billion in the same period in 2022.

The PSA said these green-lighted foreign investments could generate as many as 19,200 jobs.

Such positive developments at home should set the President in a good mood as he confers with his world leader counterparts at the APEC Summit, and we would be happy to see him standing tall amongst them, his self-esteem and sense of pride boosted for being at the helm of a country that is beating gloomy growth forecasts and doing not too bad at all, in these rough, uncertain times.