A rising economy

FITCH recently upgraded the Philippines’ credit rating to a “BBB,” a step higher than the agency’s base investmentgrade rating of “BBB-.” Affirming the country’s attractiveness to investment, Fitch cited favorable economic conditions and the pending enactment of Package 1 of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) as major reasons for the upgrade.

The Asian Development Bank, in a supplement to its Asia Development Outlook (ADO) report, upgraded its growth forecast for the Philippines in 2017—from 6.5% to 6.7% GDP expansion—and in 2018—from 6.7% to 6.8%. A major reason for the upgrade was the expected upsurge in government spending, as the administration’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” has already begun to accelerate.

The Philippines also registered continuing growth in manufacturing, as shown in the recent Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), published by Nikkei and IHS Markit and is often read as an indicator of a manufacturing sector’s health and economic activity. For November, the Philippines had a PMI score of 54.8, which is higher than the 53.7 registered in October and the third consecutive month that the country’s manufacturing sector has been expanding at a quick pace.

More tourists are also coming to the country. According to recent Department of Tourism (DOT) data, there were 5.47 million foreign tourist arrivals between January and September of this year, which is roughly a 12-percent increase from the 4.9 million registered in the same period the year before.

These glowing data come as a recent SWS survey found that up to 47 percent of Filipino adults expect their lives to improve in the next 12 months, resulting in an excellent net personal optimism score of “+42.” In the same survey, nearly half of the respondents (43 percent) said they expect the country’ s economy to improve within the next year.

Clearly, the Philippines’ rally continues. Email: