Poverty reduction first before rating upgrade – DOF

Securing a credit rating upgrade is only secondary to the government’s “paramount concern” of reducing the poverty incidence in the country, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd told debt watchers in a meeting held in Washington, D.C..

In his remarks before a meeting with credit rating agencies on the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Group Annual Fall meeting, Dominguez said the new administration’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda aims to rapidly reduce poverty incidence from 26 percent to 17 percent over the next six years.