BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Benjamin Diokno told local economic managers that they will have to know continuously assess the effect of the global growth slowdown on the local economy to maintain the country’s financial stability.
In his first meeting as the new chairman of the Financial Stability Coordination Council (FSCC), Diokno said he will continue to build on the progress made by the FSCC as the venue for financial market authorities to identify, monitor, manage and mitigate the build up of systemic risk in the Philippine financial system.
Diokno replaced the late BSP Governor and FSCC Chairman Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr., who succumbed to tongue cancer in February.
The FSCC is an inter-agency council with the BSP, the Department of Finance, the Insurance Commission, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission as member institutions.
The new governor led the assessment on the impact of the slowing global growth on the Philippines, as well as the changing economic landscape in both the US and China for his first chairmanship meeting to the board.
“Global markets were turbulent when we closed 2018 and there are new developments at the start of 2019 that could affect financial markets,” Diokno said.
“We need to consider the possible scenarios and steer our financial system so that we can effectively manage these possibilities, and continue with our economic growth agenda,” he added.
Reports from the BSP also said that local market conditions were likewise reviewed, including the state of the banking industry and the corporate sector.
The analysis of the Council is expected to be shared publicly with the release of the 2018 Financial Stability Report (FSR) in the second quarter of this year.
Image credits: Sam Kang Li/Bloomberg