amando m tetangco, jr : championing microentrepreneurship speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at the citi microentrepreneurship awards ( cma ) 2013 media launch, bangko sentral ng pilipinas, manila, 8 july 2013. * * * good afternoon everyone and welcome microentrepreneuship awards or cma. to the launching of the citi in the ten years of cma, we have met many microentrepreneurs who lifted themselves from poverty, transformed into net savers in banks, and served as catalysts for development in their respective communities. today, as we launch the 2013 cma, we look forward to hearing more inspiring stories of how access to collateral - free credit can be so empowering. indeed, we have witnessed the power of microfinance to improve lives across the country. as a member of the cma board of judges for 8 years now, i have witnessed how this awards program has also evolved. for instance, in response to the increasing difficulty of the board of judges to select the winners from such a rich field, the cma made a simple win - win decision - it developed new award categories. in addition, cma has made the prizes more meaningful : aside from cash rewards, winners also get insurance coverage, entrepreneurship training, and support for expanding their partnership networks. in other words, cma keeps pace with the developments in the microfinance industry. the development of the philippine microfinance industry has been phenomenal. ten years ago, microfinance was limited to microcredit provided by leading ngos, cooperatives and a handful of banks. since then, there has been a significant increase and diversification of microfinance players, products and services, as well as delivery channels. the bangko sentral ng pilipinas provides leadership in the development of the microfinance sector through appropriate policies, regulations and programs. so far so good. in fact, the philippines has been cited to have the best regulatory framework for the development of microfinance for four consecutive years now. as of march 2013, there were 186 banks with microfinance operations reaching out to more than 1 million clients. their combined savings have reached 8. 2 billion pesos, higher than the 8 billion pesos they have borrowed. this is

financial corporations have fallen by over 110 basis points. lending rates for small and medium - sized enterprises, which provide two - thirds of total private sector employment in the euro area, have declined by over 180 basis points. the sharp reduction in bank lending rates has been accompanied by easier access to funding, as recent surveys have shown. 1 these positive developments have been supported by the second series of targeted longer - term refinancing operations, as a result of which banks are passing on the favourable funding conditions to their customers. moreover, these improvements are not limited to interest rates : bank lending volumes have also been gradually recovering since early 2014. market - based funding conditions, too, have improved significantly in response to the corporate sector purchase programme launched in june 2016. we expect the euro area economy to recover further. private consumption growth and the continued cyclical recovery of business investment are expected to support domestic demand. underpinning consumption are the improvements in labour market conditions, with 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches unemployment steadily falling despite a rise in participation. these developments increase households ’ real disposable income, which boosts the spending of established employees, who are confident about their earnings prospects, as well as new employees. business investment is also expected to continue recovering amid support from better corporate profitability. as for price developments, after hovering at levels well below 1 % for three years, with occasional dips into negative territory, euro area headline inflation edged higher towards the end of last year and reached 1. 8 % in january. this upward movement of inflation mainly reflects increases in energy and food prices. by contrast, underlying inflation – which relates more to domestic price pressures – continues to remain very subdued and has yet to show clear signs of a more dynamic upward movement. for example, the annual rate of hicp inflation excluding food and energy has mostly remained below 1 % since late 2013. so why is underlying inflation still slow to pick up? and will further monetary accommodation really facilitate a durable return of inflation back to a level that is below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term? to answer these questions we need to acknowledge that monetary policy controls medium - term inflation through two main channels : by influencing cyclical conditions and by pinning down expectations. as you see, i have omitted from my list the sort of “ structural factors ” that have figured prominently in the recent debate on secular stagnation and have been invoked – in that context – as an explanation for low inflation. this is