Fitch Retains Philippine Debt Rating

Global debt watcher Fitch Ratings kept the Philippines’ investment grade of ‘BBB’, citing the country’s robust economic growth, comfortable debt level and policies that are supporting macroeconomic stability, PNA reported. Fitch also assigned a ‘stable’ outlook on the rating, which means the current status would remain unchanged in the next 12 to 18 months. The ‘BBB’ rating is a notch above the minimum investment grade. Fitch said it was expecting the Philippines to maintain its “place among the fastest-growing economies in the Asia-Pacific region.” It said domestic demand would sustain a strong growth of 6.8% in both 2019 and 2020. Fitch also said the “improvement in government revenues should help preserve fiscal stability” even as the government pursued a bold infrastructure development agenda. The government plans to increase spending on vital infrastructure annually from 6.1% of gross domestic product this year to 7.3% of GDP by 2022. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said this latest development was another recognition of the bold economic policy of the Duterte administration to fix the flawed tax system for the first time in over 20 years.