As I mentioned earlier, in the past few years, Japanese firms have made efforts to reduce labor input through such measures as labor-saving investment, reflecting the tightening of labor market conditions. Such efforts have been particularly pronounced in the nonmanufacturing sector, where there remains substantial room for productivity improvements compared to other economies.
In line with the whole-of government response to the pandemic, the BSP acted swiftly and decisively by adopting measures to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on lives and livelihoods. We have, so far, injected more than PHP2.0 trillion (or $ billion) in liquidity to the financial system, equivalent to 11 percent of the country’s GDP.