Purisima: 'Resilient' economy to keep PHL safe from US downgrade

The resilient Philippine economy leaves Filipinos little reason to worry about the historic credit rating downgrade suffered by the United States, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Wednesday. “We’re in a better position now. We shouldn’t be overly concerned about it," Purisima said, citing the Aquino administration’s programs towards macro-economic stability. Government has been working toward attracting more infrastructure investments and developing growth sectors, such as those in business process outsourcing, added the secretary. Purisima also urged developed countries to come up with a global accord that will coordinate their actions in dealing with the looming US crisis. Likewise, he added that Southeast Asian countries must also coordinate their efforts. “Southeast Asia is small in this whole spectrum, but we need to coordinate our actions similar to what happened during the 1997 Asian financial crisis," Purisima said. Earlier, Purisima said the US needs to address its fundamental issues to prevent jitters among investors. “Unless the US addresses their fundamental issues, I think we may have entered an era of less predictable and less stable global financial markets as a result of the credit downgrade of the global reserve currency and the benchmark financial instrument. This resulting unease may in the short term make investors more tentative and may slow down the global economy," he said. On Tuesday, experts said that if the US economy worsens, overseas Filipino workers and their families will likely suffer. — PE/VS, GMA News