While so far, the financial sector has remained resilient, we continue to monitor developments in household debt and in property markets for signs that these might have more broad ranging effects on the financial system. Endnotes [*]  I am grateful to Nicole Adams and Cathie Close for assistance with this speech.
On the external front, we have been able to sustain current account surpluses for more than a decade due to strong structural flows from remittances and BPO receipts. As a result, our GIR has increased to USD 81.3 billion as of end-February 2015.