Investors take fright in the Philippines

Financial markets in the Philippines have fallen back in recent weeks amid growing concern over the increasingly erratic behaviour of the country’s new president, Rodrigo Duterte. Following his election in May, Duterte helped to sooth the nerves of investors by delegating all matters of economic policy to his respected finance minister, Carlos Dominguez. So far at least, Duterte has kept to his promise. What has unnerved investors is a string of highly inflammatory statements which have raised major questions about his judgement. Over the past couple of weeks alone, Duterte has made international headlines by calling US President Barack Obama “the son of a whore”, while also being forced to defend accusations that he hired death squads during his time as mayor of Davao City. Of course, bad headlines on their own will not derail the economy, which has been one of the fastest growing in the region over the past year. However, Duterte’s behaviour will raise doubts in the minds of investors whom the government are depending upon to help fund their ambitious plans to improve the country’s infrastructure.