{"id":176586,"date":"2018-08-14T02:46:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T06:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=176586"},"modified":"2018-08-14T02:53:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T06:53:05","slug":"ph-still-enjoys-cushions-external-shocks-espenilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/14\/ph-still-enjoys-cushions-external-shocks-espenilla\/","title":{"rendered":"PH still enjoys cushions from external shocks: Espenilla"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: BSP Gov. Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. keynotes 2018 RBAP Annual National Convention in SMX Center, Davao on May 21 (Photo<\/a>: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the domestic economy’s proven resiliency shelters it from the full brunt of external problems, such as Turkey’s ongoing financial crisis.<\/p>\n

In an interview Monday, the central bank chief said the country\u2019s macroeconomic fundamentals remain \u201cvery good\u201d on the back of strong domestic expansion and sustained improvement of fiscal and monetary policies.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s external position, he said, remains good since the government\u2019s budget deficit is \u201cmoderate\u201d and \u201cindebtedness is low.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the economic managers’ \u201cpolicy response is quite dynamic and strong,\u201d as shown by the tax reform program on the fiscal side, as well as policy rate decisions to address rising inflation on the monetary side. \u201cSo our policy-making is dynamic, and our exchange rate is flexible,\u201d Espenilla said, citing these factors as the country\u2019s second line of defense against external factors.<\/p>\n

The third line of defense, he said, includes the high foreign exchange reserves and the strong banking system. \u201cFor those three main reasons — fundamentals, sound policy, buffers — the Philippine economy is quite resilient to external factors,\u201d he said, pointing out, however, that \u201cthat\u2019s not to say that we won\u2019t be affected by what\u2019s going on outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Espenilla noted that the country will still \u201cbe affected but we\u2019d like to think the impact would be relatively moderate and manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The domestic economy\u2019s resiliency has been proven, especially during the global economic crunch a decade ago.<\/p>\n

While growth in some advanced economies contracted during the global financial crisis, the Philippine economy remained strong, with average domestic growth rising to about 6 percent from about 3 percent before.<\/p>\n

In the second quarter of 2018, growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), slowed to 6 percent from 6.6 percent in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n

Espenilla, however, attributed this slowdown mainly to the small contribution of the agriculture sector as a result of weather-related factors. Agriculture expanded by only 0.2 percent from April to June this year due to the weather disturbances.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the central bank chief said the impact of the monsoon rains on inflation of agricultural items, in particular, will have short-term impact and will be transitory. \u201cThey normalize as soon as supply normalizes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is when all these things come together at the same time. People may fear that there\u2019s already widespread inflation that\u2019s persistent,\u201d he said, hence, the monetary officials\u2019 move to always explain to people the reasons for the uptick of inflation. Espenilla noted that \u201cdepending on the drivers of inflation, not all of them require monetary policy action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many of these, the best response is really to deal on the supply side, so the supply normalizes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the domestic economy’s proven resiliency shelters it from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":172481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","mauthors-joann-villanueva","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}