Manila,
\nFitch Ratings on Monday upgraded the Philippines\u2019 sovereign credit rating, citing the nation\u2019s strong economic performance and policies and pointing to no immediate impact on investment from President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadly war on drugs.<\/p>\n
Fitch, the first credit rating agency to raise the Philippines\u2019 credit rating to investment grade in 2013, said investor confidence remains strong, as indicated by solid domestic demand and inflows of foreign direct investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, there is no evidence so far that incidents of violence associated with the administration\u2019s campaign against the illegal drug trade have undermined investor confidence,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Its upgrade to BBB from BBB- aligns the agency\u2019s ratings on the Southeast Asian country with those of peers Standard & Poor\u2019s and Moody\u2019s Investor Services.<\/p>\n
Although the Southeast Asian nation is among the fastest growing economies in Asia, some analysts had flagged risks Duterte\u2019s deadly war on drugs could pose to investment.<\/p>\n
The Philippines has drawn international criticism for the killing of about 3,900 people in police anti-drugs operations since Duterte took power in June last year. But the police deny allegations by human rights advocates that many of the killings were executions.<\/p>\n
A statement from President Duterte\u2019s office on Monday said the upgrade was an affirmation of the administration\u2019s fight against crime and corruption.<\/p>\n
Fitch? forecast real gross domestic product growth of 6.8 percent for the Philippines in 2018 and 2019 and said it would maintain its place among the fastest-growing economies in the Asia-Pacific? region.<\/p>\n
Fitch said it expects higher infrastructure spending under the government\u2019s public investment programme to support continued robust growth over the medium term.<\/p>\n
Duterte has pledged to modernise the country\u2019s airports, roads, railways and ports through a six-year $180-billion, \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d initiative to attract much-needed foreign direct investment and lift economic growth.<\/p>\n
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said he expects more positive rating actions for the Philippines over the next two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur macroeconomic fundamentals are on par with, if not better than, those of higher-rated sovereigns and continue to improve,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Investors\u2019 reaction was muted, with the peso slightly firmer against the US dollar following Fitch\u2019s announcement. It opened at 50.42 and rose further to 50.31 from Friday\u2019s close of 50.50.<\/p>\n
The Philippines\u2019 benchmark stock index was down 0.2 percent at 0312 GMT.<\/p>\n
Fitch upgraded the Philippines by one notch to \u2018BBB-\u2018 in 2013, with the agency citing Manila\u2019s efforts to achieve fiscal sustainability, curb corruption and increase infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manila, Fitch Ratings on Monday upgraded the Philippines\u2019 sovereign credit rating, citing the nation\u2019s strong economic performance and policies and pointing to no immediate impact on investment from President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadly war on drugs. Fitch, the first credit rating agency to raise the Philippines\u2019 credit rating to investment grade in 2013, said investor confidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12851,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12849\/revisions\/12851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}