President Marcos vows to sustain efforts vs poverty

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos vowed to sustain efforts aimed at promoting growth and ending poverty after debt watcher Rating and Investment Information Inc. (R&I) upgraded the Philippines’ credit rating to A-, the country’s highest rating to date.

The upgrade was due to the country’s macroeconomic stability, high economic growth path and expected improvements in fiscal condition, according to the R&I website.

In a statement posted on Facebook Saturday night, Marcos said the upgrade reflected investors’ strong confidence in the economy.

“This upgrade is also an upgrade of the life of every Filipino,” the President said.

“While this is the first credit rating upgrade of my administration, we will not stop here. We will keep giving our best to make sure that every Filipino benefits from economic growth until we break the cycle of poverty. The fight for a new Philippines continues!” he added.

Marcos noted that the upgrade would help the Philippines bring down borrowing costs and secure cheap and affordable financing for the government, businesses and ordinary consumers.

“That means, instead of using the money to pay for interest, we can use the money we will save for various forms of public service like infrastructure, healthcare facilities and classrooms for our students,” Marcos said.

“This will help us invest more on our people – paving the way for more Carlos Yulos in the near future,” he added, referring to the Filipino gymnast who won two gold medals in the recently concluded Paris Olympics.

Marcos expressed optimism that the continuous improvement of the country’s debt rating would lead to more investments and quality jobs that would raise the income of every Filipino.

In a statement issued last Aug. 14, R&I said the Philippine economy would likely see stable growth and continuous improvement in the level of national income against the backdrop of active public and private sector investments, development of domestic business sectors such as business process outsourcing and favorable demographics, among other elements.

The fiscal balance as a share of gross domestic product, which had deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic, has improved and the government debt ratio would likely start falling in a year or two, the Tokyo-based credit rater added.

“The Philippine economy has been showing fast growth among the major economies in Southeast Asia. On top of the service industry centered on business process outsourcing, the manufacturing bases including semiconductor industries are expanding,” it said.

The Japanese credit watcher previously assigned a BBB+ rating – two ranks higher than the minimum investment grade – to the Philippines.