ING: Investor confidence still ok despite pork barrel scam

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines remains an attractive investment destination despite the P10-billion pork barrel scam, the local unit of Dutch banking firm ING said on Friday.

“I can only see this as a good thing (for the country) to actually improve the process and this will make more efficient the release of the government funds,” ING Bank Manila Country Manager Consuelo Garcia said.

Garcia said the country still has investors' confidence owing to its strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

“They have seen some of the reforms, (although) they expect more (reforms)... And we became investment grade, that made the cost of borrowings cheaper,” she said.

Garcia said the cost of funding and expansion remains manageable due to the country's manageable inflation and low interest rates.

Inflation dipped to a four-year low in August, with the prices of goods and services decelerating to 2.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas since October last year has kept policy rates— the benchmark for banks’ loan pricing— at 3.5 percent for overnight borrowing and 5.5 percent for overnight lending.