Investor confidence in the Philippines continued to be in the optimistic zone for the third straight quarter in January to March, suggesting that investors believed the market had stabilized, the ING Group's latest quarterly Investor Dashboard Survey showed. The global financial service group said the Philippine index rose by 5 points to 139 in the first quarter from the previous one despite growing uncertainty about the upcoming national and local elections. The sentiment index for the Philippines has been climbing since reaching a low of 89 at the height of the US-led financial crisis in the first quarter of last year. But the Philippine index was slightly below the overall pan-Asia (excluding Japan) rating, which slid to 145 in the first quarter from 147 in the last quarter of 2009. “Investor confidence in the region, however, continues to be high at double the crisis low of 73 for the [fourth quarter of] 2008, and remains in the optimistic range,” ING said in a statement. With the recovering economy, local investors showed the most improved view of the high-risk investment sector among Asia-Pacific countries, ING said. “The increase in Philippine investors who said their household financial situation improved in the last quarter [was] the second highest in the region, after India,” it added. Paul Joseph Garcia, trust officer of ING Bank N.V.'s Manila branch, traced the uptrend to investors' improved expectations on growth prospects for Asian markets, including the Philippines. He also cited economic stimulus of heavy election spending, increased exports and money sent home by Filipino workers abroad. Philippine exports rose for the fourth consecutive month in February, posting double-digit growth from a year earlier following a surge in electronic product sales, the government reported Tuesday. Export earnings grew by 42.3 percent to $3.567 billion in February from a year earlier, bringing the two-month level to $7.146 billion or 42.4 percent growth.
