Sharpening and ﬁne tuning our ﬁscal
tools for sustainable and resilient growth
ZENO RONALD R. ABENOJA

Undersecretary and Chief Economic Counselor
Department of Finance, Republic of the Philippines
The Role of Infrastructure Financing and ESG Activities by
Capital Markets to Promote Sustainable Growth
Asian Capital Markets Roundtable 2023
2 February 2023

Building climate-smart and climate-resilient infrastructure

Our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) seeks to achieve
the following objectives:

Bring down
debt-to-GDP ratio
to less than 60
percent by 2025

Reducedeﬁcit-to-GDPratio to 3.0
percent by 2028

Maintain highinvestment ininfrastructure at
5 to 6 percent ofGDP annuallySources: National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Finance ( DOF),
Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)

Building climate-smart and climate-resilient infrastructure

Sources: DOF and DBM

The unprecedented scale of crucial spending during the pandemic,
at a time when revenues were down, widened the ﬁscal deﬁcit.

Bring down
debt-to-GDP ratio
to less than 60
percent by 2025

Reducedeﬁcit-to-GDPratio to 3.0
percent by 2028

Maintain highinvestment ininfrastructure at
5 to 6 percent of
GDP annuallySources: DOF, DBM, Bureau of Treasury (BTr), and PSA

Promotion of innovative ﬁnancing tools like sustainableﬁnance could support robust economic growth
●

●
●
●

Support the development or
redevelopment of
infrastructure to build backbetter;Advance climate adaptationand mitigation initiatives;
Enhance capacity for disaster
response and recovery; andReduce social risks andvulnerabilities.
Source: Inter-Agency Technical Working Group for Sustainable FinancePromotion of innovative ﬁnancing tools like sustainableﬁnance could support robust economic growth

Bring down
debt-to-GDP ratio
to less than 60
percent by 2025

The Framework sets out how theRepublic intends to raise green, social, or
sustainability bonds, and other debt
instruments in the international capital
markets.

Reducedeﬁcit-to-GDP
ratio to 3.0
percent by 2028

Maintain highinvestment ininfrastructure at
5 to 6 percent of
GDP annually

As of January 2023, a combined total of
USD3 billion of 25-year Sustainability
Global Notes and JPY70.1 billion of
Sustainability Samurai Bonds have been
issued under the Framework.
Source: BTrPromising developments in fostering an environment
conducive to sustainable ﬁnanceThree phases of regulations tostrengthen the ﬁnancial system
ReduceBring down
debt-to-GDP ratio
against climate-relatedrisksdeﬁcit-to-GDP
andratio to 3.0
to less than 60
percent by 2028
percent
by 2025
promotesustainability:

Maintain highinvestment ininfrastructure at
5 to 6 percent of
GDP annuallySource: Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas

Promising developments in fostering an environment
conducive to sustainable ﬁnanceThree phases of regulations tostrengthen the ﬁnancial system
ReduceBring down
debt-to-GDP ratio
against climate-relatedrisksdeﬁcit-to-GDP
andratio to 3.0
to less than 60
percent by 2028
percent
by 2025
promotesustainability:

Updates:● Majority of the banks have already submitted their
Maintain hightransition
investment in plans to the BSP.
infrastructure at
5 to 6 percent ofGDP annually●

A number of large banks in the Philippines havealready released their Sustainable Finance
Frameworks and have started issuing sustainableﬁnance-related ﬁnancial instruments.

●Some smaller banks experienced challenges incomplying with the guidelines. Hence, increasingawareness and building capacity of said banks are
top priorities for the BSP.
Note: Banks were given a three-year transition period until May 2023.
Source: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Policy considerations as a way forward:

1

2

Centralized datacollection system to tracksustainable ﬁnance ﬂows
from both public andprivate sectors

Sustainable pipeline
database and sustainability
index

3

4

Increasing public andstakeholder awareness on
sustainable development andsustainable ﬁnance

Promotion of investments
towards climate
adaptation, mitigation,
and also transition ﬁnanceAs we strive to build back better
towards a sustainable future forour people, we are open in
adapting innovative strategies,
like leveraging onsustainable ﬁnance, to aid inbuilding a more climate-smart
and climate-resilient Philippines.