The economy of the Philippines is the world's 36th largest economy by nominal GDP according to the 2019 estimate of the International Monetary Fund's statistics, it is the 13th largest economy in Asia, the 4th largest economy in the ASEAN after Indonesia and Thailand. The Philippines is one of the emerging markets and is the sixth richest in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita values, after the regional countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia; the Philippines is considered a newly industrialized country, which has an economy in transition from one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. As of 2017, GDP by purchasing power parity was estimated to be at $1.980 trillion. Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, fruits. Major trading partners include Japan, the United States, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany and Thailand; the Philippines has been named as one of the Tiger Cub Economies together with Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

It is one of Asia's fastest growing economies. However, major problems remain having to do with alleviating the wide income and growth disparities between the country's different regions and socioeconomic classes, reducing corruption, investing in the infrastructure necessary to ensure future growth; the Philippine economy is projected to be the 5th largest in Asia and 16th biggest in the world by 2050. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers, it estimates that it will be the 12th to 14th richest economy in the world by 2060. While this opposes other reports from HSBC Holdings PLC, that by the year 2050, the Philippines will have been stated to surpass the economy of Indonesia due to its yearly higher GDP growth rate of 6.5%. However, the economic statistics may still vary depending on the performance of the government every year; the economic history of the Philippine Islands had been traced back to the pre-colonial times. The country, composed of different kingdoms and thalassocracies oversaw the large number of merchants coming to the islands for trade.

Indian, Arab and Japanese merchants were welcomed by these kingdoms, which were located by riverbanks, coastal ports and central plains. The merchants traded for goods such as gold, rice and other products; the barter system was implemented at that time and the pre-colonial people enjoyed a life filled with imported goods which reflected their fashion and lifestyle. From the 12th century, a huge industry centred around the manufacture and trade of burnay clay pots, used for the storage of tea and other perishables, was set up in the northern Philippines with Japanese and Okinawan traders; these pots were known as'Ruson-tsukuri' in Japanese, were considered among the best storage vessels used for the purpose of keeping tea leaves and rice wine fresh. Hence, Ruson-Tsukuri pots became sought after in Northeast Asia; each Philippine kiln had its own branding symbol, marked on the bottom of the Ruson-tsukuri by a single baybayin letter. The people were great agriculturists and the islands especifically Luzon has great abundance of rice, wine as well as great numbers of carabaos, wild boar and goats.

In addition, there were great quantities of cotton and colored clothes, wax and date palms produced by the natives. The precolonial state of Caboloan in Pangasinan exported deer-skins to Japan and Okinawa; the Nation of Ma-i produced beeswax, true pearls, tortoise shell, medicinal betel nuts and yuta cloth in their trade with East Asia. By the early sixteenth century, the two largest polities of the Pasig River delta and Tondo, established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago; the Visayas islands, home to the Kedatuan of Madja-as, the Kedatuan of Dapitan and the Rajahnate of Cebu on the other hand were abundant in rice, cotton, fowls and honey. Leyte was said to produce two rice crops a year, Pedro Chirino commented on the great rice and cotton harvests that were sufficient to feed and clothe the people. In Mindanao, the Rajahnate of Butuan specialized in the mining of gold and the manufacture of jewelry; the Sultanate of Maguindanao was known for the harvesting of cinnamon.

The Sultanate of Lanao had a fishing industry by lake Lanao and the Sultanate of Sulu had lively pearl-diving operations. The kingdoms of ancient Philippines were active in international trade, they used the ocean as natural highways. Ancient peoples were engaged in long-range trading with their Asian neighbors as far as west as Maldives and as far as north as Japan; some historians proposed that they had regular contacts with the people of Western Micronesia because it was the only area in the Oceania that had rice crops and tradition of betel nut chewing when the first Europeans arrived there. The uncanny resemblance of complex body tattoos among the Visayans and those of Borneo proved some interesting connection between Borneo and ancient Philippines. Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, mentioned that merchants and ambassadors from all surrounding areas came to pay tribute to the rajah of Sugbu for the purpose of trade. While Magellan's crew were with the rajah, a representative from Siam was paying tribute to the rajah.

Miguel López de Legazpi wrote how merchants from Luzon and Mindoro had come to Cebu for trade, he mentioned how the Chinese merchants came to Luzon for the same purpose. The Visayan Islands had earlier encounters with Greek traders in 21 AD, its people enjoyed exten

"Kaze no Naka de" is the third single by Japanese recording artist Arisa Mizuki. It was released on November 21, 1991 as the third and final single from Mizuki's debut studio album Arisa. Both the A-side and B-side were composed by Amii Ozaki; the title track, "Kaze no Naka de," served as theme song for Mizuki's first feature film Chō Shōjo Reiko. "Graduation" served as theme song for the Japanese dub of the animated series Babar. "Kaze no Naka de,", written for Mizuki's debut album Arisa, was released as a single at Mizuki's request. "Kaze no Naka de" debuted on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart at number 10 with 49,740 copies sold in its first week. The single has sold a total of 121,870 copies. "Kaze no Naka de" was the 18th best-selling single of December 1991. All tracks are written by Amii Ozaki

The Six Servants is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, published in Kinder- und Hausmärchen as KHM134. An evil Queen is a sorceress, she offers her hand in marriage. None of them managed to bring those to a good end, so she has all who failed beheaded. One day, a prince wants to compete to win her hand. At first his father forbids him to do so, but the son falls ill for seven years without a physician being able to help him. Only when the father allows him to go does his health improve. During his voyage the prince meets six men with amazing talents and powers, whom he all takes along to be his servants; the first one is a man with a belly as huge as a small mountain, able to stretch himself out to bigger obesity. The second is a man, able to hear the tiniest sound, demonstrated by the fact that when the prince meets him he is listening to the grass growing and can hear someone being beheaded in the evil Queen's castle; the third servant is an tall man. The fourth one a man who wears a blindfold in front of his eyes because his glance is so powerful that it makes everything he sees split to pieces.

The fifth servant is a man who feels hot in extreme frost. The sixth and final servant is a man; the prince and his servants arrive at the Queen's castle. He is told to fulfill three tasks to gain her daughter's hand in marriage. First he has to fetch a ring; the man with the sharp eyesight notices the ring. The obese man drinks the sea dry, whereupon the tall man picks the ring up with ease; the Queen is surprised that they managed to safely perform the first task, but orders the second task next. The prince has to eat three hundred oxen, hair, bones and all, drink three hundred casks of wine to the last drop. If any trace of these are found he will lose his life; the prince asks whether he's allowed to have one guest join him and his wish is granted. He brings the obese servant along and in less than no time everything is finished. For the final task the prince has to guard the princess in her room with his arms around her. If the Queen returns around the clock of midnight and the princess is no longer in his arms his life will be lost.

The prince takes precautions by having the Tall servant and Obese servant surround him and the princess, so that nobody can touch them. However, the Queen casts a spell over them, she carries the princess away. At a quarter to twelve everybody awakes and the prince panics; the man with the amazing sense of hearing listens and hears her crying on a rock, three hundred leagues away. The Tall One rises, takes a few steps and runs towards them, taking the servant with the sharp eyesight with him; the latter looks at the rock, causing it to shatter into a thousand pieces, while the Tall One grabs the princess and brings her back before deadline. With all three tasks fulfilled the Queen whispers in the princess' ear that it's a shame that she has to obey common people and not being allowed to choose a husband to her own liking; this makes the princess angry. Next day she orders lit on fire. If someone is able to sit in the midst of the wood and bear the fire she'll marry him; the servant who can't stand cold fulfills the task, still shivering as the flames have burnt out.

Now the princess can not stop the prince from marrying her. As they drive off to church, the evil Queen sends her soldiers; the servant with the amazing sense of hearing tells the others. The obese servant spits out all the water. A next legion of soldiers is stopped by the servant with the amazing eyesight looking at them and shooting them to smithereens. After that, the marriage is held without any further problems and all the servants go their own separate ways. Returning to his kingdom, the prince lies to his bride that he is a swineherd, he forces his bride to work in extreme poverty and misery for eight days, causing her to believe it is what she deserved for being so proud and haughty. She is brought to the palace, where the prince reveals it was all just a ploy to have her suffer just as much for him as he did for her, they marry as prince and princess and live ever after. The fairy tale is well known in the Netherlands, thanks to it being part of several of the fairy tales exhibited in the theme park Efteling in Kaatsheuvel, Northern Brabant.

A huge animatronic statue of the long-necked servant can be seen there since 1952, telling the story to all visitors on a repeated audio recording. This statue, called Langnek, is a mascot for the park. In 1955, a little pond was dug around the stone. A bust of the servant with the sharp eyesight, Bullet-eye, with a wasp on his nose stood next to Long-neck. In the late 1950s, Bullet-eye was removed and a smaller bust of a blindfolded Bullet-eye was placed upon a kiosk near Long-neck. Long-neck received a new head in the 1970s. In 2006, safety-fences were placed near the pond; the tale is voiced by Peter Reijnders, can be read from a book in Dutch, English and German. The story is similar to other European folk tales and fairy tales about a man with talented servants, such as How Six Made Their Way in the World, Long and Sharpsight, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, How the Hermit Helped to Win the King's Daughter, The Clever Little Tailor and one of the sto