Forbes says Duterte's ratings rising in terms of economy

President Rodrigo Duterte, photo from Inquirer News

President Rodrigo Duterte's rating,according to an article by Forbes, is rising in terms of the country's equity market which has been rallying since August.

This despite the drop of the President's approval rating in a recent SWS survey from "very good" 66 to "good" 48.



The PSEi has been rallying in recently, gaining 8 percent in the last three months, and 0.68 percent on Monday’s trade session.

According to the article by Panos Mourdoukoutas, there's a good reason for this. He said that equity markets follow the economy.

Duterte's economy has been doing great, ranking 10th fastest growing economy in 2017, according to the World Bank’s latest edition of Global Economic Prospects.

For 2017, the Philippines’ economy is expected to advance between 6.5 to 7.5 percent. And that’s almost twice the country’s long-term growth.

One factor that caused this rise is the recovery of the Asian Pacific region that has boosted exports, which account for close to a third of GDP.



Exports from the Philippines since last year to April of this year rose 12.1 percent, to 4.81 billion US dollars.

"Still, Duterte has something to do with the economy’s strong performance. He has maintained a stable macroeconomic environment of low inflation and low debt to GDP ratio, which has helped sustain a healthy domestic demand growth," the article read.

The article provided a contrast  between the recent market reaction and of the equity market reactions last year when the President made "flip-flops" over the South China Sea.

Then, the market index was reported to have lost 7.2 percent in a span of a month.

The rise in equity market ratings is a breath of fresh air after the Social Weather Stations satisfaction ratings for the President had an 18-point drop  from +66 in June to +48 in September of this year.

The SWS terminology for net satisfaction and net trust ratings are the following: +70 and above, “excellent”; +50 to +69, “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”, +9 to –9, “neutral”; –10 to –29, “poor”; –30 to –49, “bad”; –50 to –69, “very bad”; –70 and below, “execrable.”


source: forbes.com