lend more ; penalty for reserve deficiencies and compliance period with bsp supervisory and reportorial requirements to allow banks to focus on delivery of financial services ; and know your customer ( kyc ) requirements to facilitate access by the public to financial services. meanwhile, prudential accounting relief measures were also implemented to reduce the impact of mark - to - market ( mtm ) losses on the financial condition of supervised financial institutions. moreover, the bsp has implemented extraordinary liquidity measures to complement the national government ’ s programs in mitigating the impact of covid - 19. these measures include a ₱300 billion repurchase agreement with the bureau of the treasury as well as the launching of a package of measures to support lending to micro -, small -, and medium - sized enterprises ( msmes ). recognizing the importance of msmes in the economy, the bsp allowed banks to include new msme loans as part of their compliance with the required reserve ratio. bsp temporarily reduced the credit risk weight of msme loans that are current in status from 75 % to 50 % and zero weight for loans with government guarantee. these policy measures are aimed at encouraging more bank lending to msmes. in closing, let me emphasize that the bsp has responded swiftly and decisively to mitigate economic and financial fall - out from the covid - 19 pandemic through its monetary instruments and regulatory relief measures. but there remains risks to our growth outlook even as a strong recovery is expected in 2021. the challenge for policymakers, therefore, is how to boost the economy through the appropriate mix of fiscal and monetary measures. and even as we enable the economy to gradually regain its footing, we should continue with our efforts to make the economy nimbler to adapt to the new economy. in particular, the bsp is committed to pursuing a 3 - year digital payments transformation roadmap that includes priority initiatives such as open banking. i believe the ongoing changes to the domestic economy are a good opportunity to accelerate the bsp ’ s call towards greater digitalization to promote a more efficient and inclusive financial system the bsp will continue to work with market participants and relevant government authorities to ensure that its policy responses and reform initiatives remain timely and appropriate for these challenging times. thank you. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

its april 2020 world economic outlook ( weo ) report, expects global economic activity to shrink radically in 2020 given widespread disruptions caused by covid - 19. while a partial recovery is anticipated in 2021, global gdp level is expected to remain below the pre - covid trend. the imf projects global economic growth to contract sharply by 3. 0 percent in 2020 before inching up to 5. 8 percent in 2021. nine out of ten countries in the imf ’ s 189 - country membership are expected to see their economies contract in 2020, including the philippines. the development budget coordination committee ( dbcc ) has recently announced the national government ’ s revised gross domestic product ( gdp ) growth forecast range of – 2. 0 percent to – 3. 4 percent for 2020, a sharp departure from the 6. 5 percent to 7. 5 percent growth target range 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches before the pandemic for 2021, the dbcc expects the domestic economy to recover strongly with a gdp growth forecast range of 7. 1 percent to 8. 1 percent, this strong rebound is based on the assumption that there is no serious second wave of the disease and that the government would be able to craft and implement a robust economic recovery program. in this slide we show that of remittances have been on a steady growth path in recent years and have contributed as well to domestic economic expansion. for the first two months of 2020, cash remittances still grew by 4. 6 percent to reach us $ 5 billion. with its strong contribution to consumption expenditure, we understand the growing concern on how the covid - 19 pandemic will impact on future remittances flows into the country. in this regard, the bsp closely monitors the latest reports from the philippine overseas employment administration ( poea ), department of labor and employment ( dole ), and the department of foreign affairs ( dfa ) on of workers ’ deployment, displacement, and repatriation status. of remittances could contract in 2020 due mainly to the large repatriation of workers and economic disruptions in host countries. the world bank projects a decline in global remittances by about 20 percent in 2020, with remittance inflows to east asia and the pacific expected to decline by 13 percent, driven mainly by declining inflows from the us, the largest source of remittances to the region. however, it is important to point out that