THE country’s debt transparency ranking shot up nine notches in the 2023 IR (Investor Relations) and Debt Transparency Report of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In a statement, BSP said the country’s ranking improved to 3rd out of 41 in just one year. Last year, the country ranked 12th overall.
The country scored 47.8 points out of 50 points. With an increase of 6.4 points from a score of 41.4 in 2022, the Philippines registered the most improved score among the top 10 countries on the list.
“This makes the Philippines’ IR practices among the best in the 41 emerging markets and developing countries assessed by IIF and indicates the country’s effectiveness in engaging investors and transparency in giving public access to macroeconomic and environment, social, and governance [ESG] data and policy information,” BSP said.
The Philippines follows Indonesia at 48.4 (1st) and Turkey at 48.3 (2nd), and precedes Colombia at 47.5 (4th) and Brazil at 45.5 (5th).
The BSP said the country’s performance improved based on the BSP Investor Relations Group webpage that now features ESG information in response to investors’ growing interest in the Philippine government’s ESG agenda.
Other areas include the dissemination of macroeconomic data; the dissemination of ESG data and policy information; and feedback and communication channels.
“The IIF assessment highlights the success of the Philippines in communicating the strength and resilience of the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals and the continuity of sound structural reforms to investors and other stakeholders,” former BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said in a statement over the weekend.
The IR program of the BSP entails reaching out to stakeholders to disseminate continuously updated information on the Philippine economy and to solicit feedback from the investment community.
The Economic Team’s proactive engagement with investors through regular participation in investor conferences, bilateral meetings, economic briefings, and non-deal roadshows have contributed to the Philippines’s improved ranking.
The IIF IR and Debt Transparency Report features guidelines for emerging markets’ best practices on IR and data dissemination in conjunction with the Principles for Stable Capital Flows and Fair Debt Restructuring.
The 2023 assessment was conducted through a combination of IIF’s desk research and a survey of countries with active IR programs.
Image credits: Michael Edwards | Dreamstime.com
