ADB sees investment grade for PH in 2013

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) believes the Philippines will attain investment grade in 2013.

“The Philippines’ strong economic performance has led to positive actions from several ratings agencies. In October, Moody’s raised the Philippines’ sovereign debt rating to Ba1, one notch below investment grade. In December, Standard & Poor’s kept its Philippine debut rating unchanged at BB+, but raised its outlook to positive from stable, making it likely that the Philippines will be upgraded in 2013,” ADB said in its Asia Bond Monitor report.

Released on Monday, March 18, ADB’s report said the Philippines was the third best-performing bond market in 2012.

The Philippine local currency bond market posted a growth of 20.5%, just behind Vietnam’s 42.7% growth, and India’s 24.3%.

In terms of value, the Manila-based multilateral development bank said Japan was still the region’s largest market, with $11.7 trillion, followed by China, with $3.8 trillion.

By end-2012, ADB said emerging East Asia had $6.5 trillion in outstanding local currency bonds versus $5.7 trillion in 2011. This marked a quarterly increase of 3% and an annual increase of 12%. The corporate bond markets, though smaller than the government bond markets, drove the increase, growing 6.2% on quarter and 18.6% on year to $2.3 trillion. – Rappler.com