Philippine Markets: 23 May 2011

23 May 2011

USD/PhP: 43.43 + 0.31 PSEi: 4263.19 - 21.97
USD/JPY: 81.54 PFINC: 962.31 - 6.89
EUR/USD: 1.4032 BDO: 57.60 - 1.30
GBP/USD: 1.6176 BPI: 57.65 - 0.25
PDSTF3M: 2.1238 MBT: 72.40 - 0.10
Prices as of 4:00pm Source: Bloomberg, Reuters


Philippines Reports April Budget Surplus as Revenue Climbs
By Max Estayo and Karl Lester M. Yap

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines reported a budget
surplus in April as revenue rose and spending fell.
The surplus was 26.3 billion pesos ($606 million) last
month, compared with an 18.1 billion-peso deficit reported
earlier for March, according to a government statement in Manila
today. Revenue climbed 11.1 percent and spending declined 8.03
percent, according to the statement.
President Benigno Aquino is going after tax evaders,
smugglers and corrupt officials to increase revenue and narrow
the budget deficit from a record 314 billion pesos in 2010.
Moody’s Investors Service may raise the Philippines’ credit
rating “sooner rather than later,” Assistant Vice President
Christian de Guzman said last month after the government kept
its first-quarter budget shortfall below target.
“A rating upgrade soon is very likely because our fiscal
accounts are getting better,” Luz Lorenzo, an economist at ATR-
Kim Eng Securities in Manila, said before the report. “This
administration has proven itself in being able to contain the
deficit. The increase in revenue is encouraging and the concern
now is spending.”
Benchmark three-year bond yields have risen 0.95 percentage
point this year. The peso has gained more than 7 percent in the
past 12 months.
Moody’s in January raised its outlook on the nation’s debt
rating to positive from stable and maintained the rating at Ba3,
three levels below investment grade.
The government will maintain its borrowing program this
year, Treasurer Roberto Tan said in a mobile-phone text message
after the report.
“We will monitor fiscal and financing developments” and
study “if there is a need for adjustments,” Tan said.


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