Forbes Asia magazine has recentely published the richest people in the the Philippines. Could this be and indication that the Philippines is on the road to recovery?

Last August 25, the magazine published the richest people in the Philippines which showed that it has reached $16.4 billion which is obviously higher as compared to last year which was $14.2billion.

As compare to the October 2008 list, nine of the top 10 and 25 of all 40 in the list posted higher wealth.

This increase according to Forbes is due to the recovery of various industries which benefited from continuously growing money sent by Filipino workers who are working outside the country. Considering this, a lot of Filipinos are spending. The Philippine Stock Exchange composite index  increase from 52% to 67% was also cited by Forbes.

Forbes based the networth calculation on share prices of companies listed in the stock market and an estimation of the worth of privately held assets if they were listed. The figures also included the share of the individuals in their family’s fortunes.

The Top on the Philippines richest based on the list is no other than Mry. Henry Sy. He was also the same guy who topped the list last year. With a current networth of $3.8 billion. This is due to his business which includes SM investments, insurance, properties and of course the ever famouls SM malls.

If you are in the Philippines you will surely see the different retail outlets of Mr. Henry Sy. He has malls, hypermarkets totalling to over 100 in the Philippines and in China. In fact some of his malls are included in  the biggest malls in the world.

Number two on the list is Mr Luio Tan. Like Mr. Henry Sy, Tan is also of Chinese descent and has businesses like beer, banking, tobacco and of course the Philippine Flag Carier, Philippine Airlines.