Reducing spending and public debt, raising credit ratings

Last Monday, Oct. 27, I attended the 2025 Fiscal Policy Conference organized by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), held at the UP College of Law.

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS, JR.

In the afternoon there were simultaneous panel sessions. I attended the panels on “Digitalization and Process Innovations” with three speakers: Department of Finance (DoF) Undersecretary Renato Reside, Jr., Ateneo de Manila University Professor Albert Matthew Alejo, and Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) Undersecretary Joseph Capuno.

In the second set of simultaneous discussions, I attended the panel on “Fiscal Stability and Sustainability,” also with three speakers: Ateneo Professor Elvira de Lara-Tuprio, Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) Director Ricardo Mira, and Bangko Sentral Director John Michael Hallig.

Among the topics discussed in the two sets of panels was why countries with high Public Debt/ GDP ratios of above 100% (like Singapore, Japan, the US, France) have high credit ratings of A+ to AAA and hence, can borrow at lower interest rates, while countries with Debt/GDP ratios below 90% (like India, Thailand, and the Philippines) have lower credit ratings of BBB.