‘Tech for good’

The Fitch Ratings issued its regional country credit review that included the Philippines.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

For this year’s outlook, Fitch rated the Philippines as one of the stronger performers among Asia’s large "BBB’-rated sovereigns, supported by solid medium-term growth prospects and resilient external buffers despite limited fiscal space and governance challenges that continue to weigh on its credit profile.

In its latest report, Fitch Ratings projects the Philippine economy to grow by 5.7 percent by the end of this year. It will make our country the second fastest-growing among the five Asian ‘BBB’ sovereigns after India. Fitch’s comparison covered India, which is projected to grow by 6.4 percent this year; Indonesia (4.8 percent); Malaysia (four percent) and Thailand (1.9 percent).

The Fitch Ratings is one of the “Big 3” international credit rating agencies (along with Moody’s and Standards & Poor’s) that provides forward-looking, independent credit opinions, research and data for financial markets. These international credit ratings agencies assess the creditworthiness of borrowers, including corporations, governments and structured finance vehicles, using a letter-based scale to rate debt from AAA (highest) to D (default).

This brings to mind the Philippine bid to reach AAA credit grade that was strongly pushed when Monetary Board (MB) member Benjamin Diokno, who was then the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor. Diokno dubbed it as “the road to AAA.”

Before he took office at the BSP, Diokno recalled, the BSP organized already its Investor Relations Group (IRG) that was specifically tasked to raise the Philippines’ credit profile and promote the country as an investment destination.