‪Duterte's Rating Is Rising‬

‪October 11, 2017‬

‪President Rodrigo Duterte’s rating is rising. In the country’s equity market, that is, which has been rallying in the last three months.‬

‪Philippines equity markets do not seem to be concerned about a big drop in President Rodrigo Deterte's approval rating in a recent SWS survey—from “very good” 66 to “good” 48.‬

‪The PSEi has been rallying in recently, gaining 8 percent in the last three months, and 0.68 percent on Monday’s trade session.‬

‪There's a good reason for it. Equity markets are following the economy. And Duterte's economy has been doing great recently, ranked the world’s 10thfastest growing economy in the world in 2017.‬

‪That’s according to the World Bank’s latest edition of Global Economic Prospects. For 2017, Philippines’ economy is expected to advance between 6.5 to 7.5 percent. And that’s almost twice the country’s long-term growth.‬

‪The Philippines economy has benefited from a recovery of the Asian Pacific region that have boosted exports, which account for close to a third of GDP. Exports from the Philippines rose 12.1 percent from a year earlier to USD 4.81 billion in April of 2017.‬

‪Still, Duterte has something to do with the economy’s strong performance. He has maintained a stable macroeconomic environment of low inflation and low debt to GDP ratio, which has helped sustain a healthy domestic demand growth.‬

‪Equity markets recent reaction to Duterte’s satisfaction rating drop is in sharp contrast to last year’s reaction to Duterte's flip-flops over South China Sea, when the main market index lost 7.2 percent over one month period.‬

‪Apparently, investors have been shifting focus from geopolitics to domestic economic fundamentals, and they like what they see: a vibrant economy, defying the on-going political turmoil, at least for now.‬

‪The trouble is that corruption, the old villain, is still a big problem in doing business in the Philippines, according to the just published World Economic Forum Report (WEFR).‬

‪And that should be a major concern for the future of the Filipino economy. Corruption and political oppression killed economic growth in the past, and they will kill it again, if they continue to spin out of control.‬

‪https://www.forbesdotcom/.../10/dutertes-rating-is-rising/...‬

‪Source: FB/Benson Bautista ‬