Let me first and foremost stress that we acknowledge the leading role of the Commission and welcome its commitment to a consistent transposition of the new capital and liquidity rules into European law. One very important topic is the introduction of a single rulebook in the EU.
Let me begin with good news. Based on the recent Philippine Statistics Authority’s data, the country is officially out of the pandemic-induced recession. The economy grew by 11.8 percent in the second quarter of 2021. Likewise, inflation rate decelerated in July 2021 to 4.0 percent. This is the first time this year that the inflation rate returned within the 2-4 percent target band.