About one month ago, the Governing Council of the ECB decided to raise the interest rate on the main refinancing operations by 25 basis points. I would like to stress that this was not a direct consequence of the favourable prospects for euro area activity growth which I just described.
In the second half, we faced the international financial turmoil that was ignited by the U.S. subprime mortgage problem and, which subsequently, turned into a global financial meltdown. While the Philippine economy has remained generally resilient and has been described by a ratings executives as an “island of calm”, it does not mean that we are totally immune to adverse global developments.