Our pledged stewardship of the Philippine monetary and financial system is of central value to the country's economic development. We have kept prices low, interest rates reasonable, the financial system sound and stable, and the payments and settlement system functioning efficiently. These are key elements in the resilient performance of the Philippine economy. What more should be done?
The sharp reduction in bank lending rates has been accompanied by easier access to funding, as recent surveys have shown.3 See the ECB’s euro area bank lending survey, July 2017, and the ECB’s Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the euro area, October 2016 to March 2017. Moreover, bank lending volumes have been gradually recovering since early 2014.