The experience of Britain’s then extensively regulated economy, harboring many wartime controls well beyond the end of hostilities, testifies to the costs of structural rigidity in times of crisis. *** Should globalization be allowed to proceed and thereby create an ever more flexible international financial system, history suggests that current imbalances will be defused with little disruption.
*** Partners from the banking community and business community, colleagues, friends in the media, ladies, and gentlemen, magandang araw po sa inyong lahat. I am pleased to welcome everyone to the Regional Macroeconomic Conference Series (RMCS) for South Luzon. This marks our fourth RMCS, building on the conference series in Central Visayas, Davao and SOCCKSARGEN, and most recently, North and Central Luzon.