Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Thursday night the Philippine economy is in a “pretty good shape right now” despite the risks posed by the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that is affecting the tourism industry.
“We are growing for 84 quarters uninterrupted and despite the global uncertainties. Key economic indicators show that the country’s robust macroeconomic fundamentals remained intact. We are in a very nice place right now… ,” Diokno said in his speech during the induction ceremony of the new set of officers of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines at the BDO Unibank Inc. headquarters in Makati City.
He said the economy would continue to grow by at least 6 percent this year, with the official target set 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent, while inflation was projected to settle within the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.
He cited the all-time high gross international reserves of $87.84 billion as of end 2019, the fairly stable exchange rate, sound and strong domestic banking system, and the declining debt to GDP ratio.
“There is nothing to complain about… I can tell you that we are the envy of other countries. In other countries, interest rate is negative and they have problems coping with that. Now we are in good shape as I said. We have monetary and fiscal space,” Diokno said.
“So despite this coronavirus [disease], let us not be so much affected by this. I tell you, that we can do more projects, the ‘Build Build, Build’ if necessary, and we can cut interest rates if necessary. In the next three or four years, the Philippines will be growing at around 6 to 7 percent,” Diokno said.
“The Philippines is right now one of the fastest and most resilient countries not only in Asia but in the entire world,” he said.
In a briefing at the BSP Thursday afternoon, Diokno said monetary authorities were not ruling out the possibility of having bigger interest rate cuts this year if COVID-19 persisted and impact on the economy in the succeeding months.
Diokno earlier committed to a 50-basis-point cut in policy rate this year.
