As of end-March 2019, the Philippine banking system assets expanded by 11.0 percent year-onyear (YoY) to P17.0 trillion which approximates the size of the domestic economy. The expansion in the banking system’s assets was primarily due to increased lending activities. The observed robust asset growth was supported by expansion in bank branch network to 11,933 as of end-June 2019.
Given the extraordinary situation, we took extraordinary decisions. However, measures are all of a temporary nature only, i.e. market participants should not get accustomed to the enhanced role of central banks in intermediation. Since 8 October we have cut the policy rate three times with an overall reduction by 175 basis points. These moves in a very short period of time are unprecedented.