New central bank governor pushes for continuity, to monitor ‘wind-down” of easy money in advanced countries
The Philippines’ new central bank governor said he will built on continuing on the gains of his predecessor and to be aware of the “seemingly imminent wind-down of ultra-easy monetary policies in advanced economies.”
Nestor Espenilla made this pledge as he began his six-year term as the country’s new central bank governor on Monday.
He replaced Amando Tetangco Jr., who helmed the central bank for 12 years and helped insulate the Philippines through a global financial crisis.
“We need to be mindful of such events and their potentially far-reaching consequences since these could undermine our economic performance and disrupt our carefully-laid plans,” said Espenilla, 58, a former deputy governor of the central bank.
He said that the central bank “cannot also be blind to the dark scepter of cyber-crime that can quickly undermine trust in our financial system.”
Espenilla said he will draw upon various modes to sustain the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ mode of excellence. One of them is from “Kaisen”, which means “continous improvement.”
“The Japanese equate excellence to the principle of ‘Kaisen’, which, in English, means ‘continuous improvement”. It is an evolutionary process?a daily conscious effort to do better than the day before,” said Espenilla in his speech.
Espenilla did not mention any economy which will be tightening its monetary policy but the US, a major trading partner of the Philippines, has raised its lending rates twice.
Espenilla said the central bank “will continue to fine-tune our execution of monetary policy to make it even more market-oriented.”
Although he pointed out that the Philippines continues “to experience strong economic performance amidst a stable macroeconomic and financial environment.” “But such growth, to be truly meaningful, needs to be inclusive, to create jobs and to improve welfare,” said Espenilla.
He said although the central bank “has been promoting reforms in the macroeconomic and financial sectors, but these are not enough. We have to push the envelope further.”
“This is why the BSP ( Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) has been passionate in its pursuit of its financial inclusion advocacy. :We need to work on bringing central banking operations closer to the people,” he said. DMS
