According to Business Times, there has been a steady flow of positive economic news for the Philippines recently. On July 4, Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised the country's debt rating to just below investment grade, the highest rating for the country since 2003 and equivalent to that of Indonesia.
It is the 44th-largest economy in the world today, according to HSBC estimates. But if current trends hold, the Philippines can leap to the No 16 spot by 2050.
The Philippine stock market, meanwhile, one of the best performers in the region, closed at a record high after the recent S&P rating upgrade, and the country's currency, the peso, reached a four-year high against the dollar at about the same time. Also the country's gross domestic product grew 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, according to the country's central bank, outperforming all other growth rates in the region except China's.
Economists expect similarly strong growth in the second quarter. "We have made a very bold forecast for the Philippines, but I think justifiably so," said Frederic Neumann, a senior economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.
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