James McCormack Quotations

While the e-VAT and the impeachment issue have both been resolved favorably in recent days, we are maintaining our negative outlook on the Philippines' ratings." ()

The Philippines is one country where politics matter." ()

The reserves are more than adequate. Maybe it is becoming excessive." ()

There are two things that we're still concerned about. One is the structure of public finances notwithstanding the fiscal performance in 2005 and two is the political outlook and the effect that politics might have on public finance." ()

Those sovereigns in the midst of political turmoil also have the weakest growth rates in emerging Asia, and further downward revisions to the growth forecast may be necessary." ()

We were always skeptical about how fast consumer recovery (would) be. It had been pretty slow. This year, we've revised our growth forecast for the Korean economy to 5 percent based on strong fourth-quarter numbers that we saw, particularly in consumption. The export sector still looks positive." ()

We are starting to see maybe a turning in the housing market in the US. And if the US consumer retracts a little, we would expect to slow down in the US in the second half of the year. That translates into a slowdown in Asia as well." ()

We are a bit cautious about the two-percentage-point increase because of the risks - primarily political risks - that it might not be implemented. One thing we learned from this is that there is always a potential for delays in its implementation." ()

So if the effective interest rate on Philippines government debt goes up, it just takes more of their revenues to service their debts, so these are issues that really do need to be addressed." ()

There is a question about how long you can do that, but it is not as if money supply is growing too fast." ()