One issue that confronts us is why has the turmoil originated in the credit market and then spread to money markets and debt markets with such great rapidity. It is widely understood that the credit market is characterized by information asymmetry.
Our accumulation of international reserves, at $ billion at end-December 2004, was at the high end of our expectations. The peso exchange rate finished firmly at P56.267 and has been appreciating since then. Undoubtedly, record remittance inflows that will definitely exceed P8 billion for the whole of 2004 has once again shored up our economy. Commendable outcomes were also contributed by our export sector.