Aquino officials to seek upgrade of PH credit ratings

NEW YORK CITY – Some members of President Benigno Aquino III’s economic team accompanying him on his current US visit are to stay behind to ask credit rating agencies to take a second look at the country’s sovereign credit rating which Philippine authorities believe are underrated by two to three notches.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) that the economic team was seeking a meeting with the credit rating agencies to “make a case that our fiscal management right now probably deserves a second look as far as ratings are concerned.”

“They [Credit ratings agencies] have some concerns about the sustainability of our spending programs,” Carandang told reporters after he joined Cabinet members in attending the conferment of an honorary degree on President Aquino by Fordham University.

He said he expected a “dynamic” meeting between the credit rating agencies and Mr. Aquino’s economic team, with the Filipino officials “a little bit more our plans for sustaining the spending programs” and the credit rating agencies “asking how the country intends to ensure that its debts would not balloon.”

“On our side, we will tell them that if you looked at what we have done and our plans moving forward then maybe the country can have a higher credit rating,” Carandang said.

He noted that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima had long been saying that “if one looks at the rating of other countries with debts higher than the Philippines, the country deserves a higher credit rating.”

The meeting between the two parties will happen when President Aquino returns home on September  21 and “probably we can expect good news there, but then again I don’t want to preempt the results of that meeting,” Carandang said.

He did not say which of the Philippine officials would stay behind for the meeting with the credit agencies. Aquino is accompanied, among others, by Purisima and Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas had commissioned a study that showed the country was two to three notches underrated and officials said that this meant the country should have been given an investment grade rating.

At present, the credit ratings given to the Philippines by Moody’s Investor Service, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings are all below investment grade.

Originally posted at 08:57 am| Tuesday, Sep. 20, 2011