WEEKS after Fitch Ratings upgraded its score for the Philippines to “investment grade,” another of the top three ratings agencies, Moody’s Investors Services, through its research unit, cited the Philippines as “Asia’s rising star” with potential to grow 8 percent by 2016.
Among the factors Moody’s Analytics said that made investors bullish on the country were the 6.6-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth last year and a stock- market rise of 33 percent last year and 23 percent this year, all occurring in an environment of low inflation and falling domestic risk, thanks to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s stabilization methods.
The analysis also said the “current rate of growth is sustainable,” with GDP growth likely to stay in the “6.5 percent to 7 percent range in 2013 and 2014, making the Philippines one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.”
The government expects GDP to grow 6 percent to 7 percent this year. In 2012, the economy grew by 6.6 percent.
Moody’s Analytics said the sustainable growth this year would be driven by construction and business-process outsourcing.
Speaking of the stock market, for the first time ever it breached the 7,000 mark, closing at 7,120.48 points on April 22. This marks the 27th high this year and the 88th for the Aquino administration.
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– Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II
Featured by BusinessMirror, 28 April 2013
