RETURNING to the prepandemic debt-to-GDP level should not be rushed as the government should prioritize spending for the country’s economic recovery, researchers from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies said.
“What we’re saying is that you can have a light fiscal consolidation right now because we need to spend so that we don’t need to be too hung up on that in the near term because we also need to spend for recovery,” Debuque-Gonzales told reporters in an interview after briefing officials from the Department of Finance on their study “Fiscal Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessing Public Debt Sustainability in the Philippines.
Should the country not immediately revert to the prepandemic debt ratio, Debuque-Gonzales said there might be a risk of a credit rating downgrade, but added that the government and economic managers may address this by showing the credit raters that the country’s fiscal situation is still fine even at that rate, and that there is a commitment to bring down the debt as a share of the economy.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.