Insights · Market brief · 20 August 2022 · 2 min read
Philippine energy market, second quarter 2022
Published in 2022. The figures and the policy are those of the time. Ask us where it stands today.
The second quarter of 2022 is where the price shock reached the Philippines properly. Headline inflation went through the top of the band and kept going, the central bank started raising, and thermal coal averaged more than three times its level of a year earlier. Growth was still 7.4%.
This edition of the quarterly market brief covers April to June 2022. Compiled in September 2026 from the releases of the time, with the revisions the agencies have published since. Nothing here is a forecast.
Growth held while prices moved
Real GDP grew 7.4% year on year, with household consumption still strong as restrictions ended. The quarter's story is not output but cost.
Inflation left the band
April: 4.9%.
May: 5.4%.
June: 6.1%.
The central bank raised the policy rate by 25 basis points on 19 May, to 2.25%, and again on 23 June, to 2.50% — the first two moves of a cycle that ran to 5.50% by December. The peso weakened through the quarter, past 55 to the dollar.
Coal at three times the price
Dubai crude averaged about 108 dollars a barrel, its highest quarter of the year. Australian thermal coal averaged about 350 dollars a tonne. Indonesian supply restrictions early in the year and the redirection of European demand away from Russian coal were the drivers; neither had anything to do with Philippine demand.
The first Green Energy Auction opened
The Department of Energy opened the first Green Energy Auction in June, offering about 2,000 MW of ground-mounted solar, onshore wind, biomass and run-of-river hydro for delivery from 2023. It was the first competitive route to a long-term renewable offtake in the country.
What it meant for a plant
Every plant that bought fuel on an index took the hit in this quarter, and the ones that had a residue on site started asking what it was worth. The arithmetic that had looked marginal at 100 dollars a tonne of coal did not look marginal at 350.
If you run a fuel-fired boiler or produce an organic residue, an energy and waste audit turns a quarter like this one into your own numbers. Tell us about your site and an engineer replies with the data we need. The other editions are filed under the quarterly market brief.
The full briefing
The full edition carries the charts, the data tables and every source, as a PDF.
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If you have organic waste or a boiler and want to know what it is actually worth, tell us what the site produces and what it costs you today. An engineer replies with the first step.
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