Purisima hoping for higher Moody's market rating

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima expressed hope that Moody’s Investor Service would agree with the higher market rating for the Philippines. Moody’s will be visiting the Philippines this month to review the country's programs and ratings. On Sunday, Purisima noted that other ratings agencies and the financial market itself have given higher ratings tp the Philippines. “I hope that it will be aligned. We're hoping that they will follow what the market is saying," Purisima said. He said the government was on the right track and would keep addressing these issues: bureaucracy, red tape, and corruption. He added that the government would keep investing on infrastructure. “I'm confident that if we execute on all these programs, the ratings will follow," he said. Moody’s generally has a stable outlook on the Philippines' sovereign rating. Moody's Investors Service is a credit rating agency that performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities. The company ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers using a standard ratings scale. On July 23, 2009, Moody’s raised the Philippines' rating to from B1 to Ba3 with a stable outlook. Moody’s earlier said the Aquino administration should capitalize on the high level of optimism of both the public and the investors. The ratings agency also said the government should clarify its economic and fiscal policies to improve the country's credit fundamentals. Moody's noted that the Aquino administration has to deal with several issues: huge debts, cost of borrowing, revenue generation and lack of investment spending compared to its regional peers. –VVP GMANews.TV