In pictures: An economy in crisis

Forty per cent of Filipinos live below the poverty line, meaning that about 30 million people cope on $1 a day or less: the poverty benchmark for the United Nations.

Unemployment is high, and up to 3,000 Filipinos a day leave to work abroad. They send money home to their families to help them survive.

President Gloria Arroyo is taking steps to improve the economy and to restore business confidence. But foreign investors are put off by the country's political instability.