Premature for Moody's rating downgrade for Philippines: official

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2004

MANILA, (AFP) — Philippine central bank governor Rafael Buenaventura says it is not a foregone conclusion Moody's will downgrade the country's credit rating.

Local newspapers, quoting unnamed government sources, said US rating agency Moody's Investors Service was expected to downgrade Philippine credit ratings by the end of the month.

"That report is premature," Buenaventura told AFP, brushing aside the newspaper articles.

A downgrade "is not a forgeone conclusion because our macroeconomic numbers come out quite well," particularly in the last quarter of 2003, Buenaventura said.

The government sources quoted by the newspapers said that they expected the Philippine rating to be downgraded as much as two notches from the present level of "Ba-1," or...