industry, liberalized the power sector, privatized the water services, and acceded to the world trade organization. these are just some of the reforms implemented in the 1990s that have been followed through in the succeeding decades and — if i may stress — more aggressively so in the last three ( 3 ) years under the duterte administration. key reforms from 2016 onwards are expected to unleash more growth potentials for the philippines. among these positive game changers have involved tax reforms, liberalization of rice importation, the national id system, universal healthcare, universal access to tertiary education, ease of doing business law, relaxation of the foreign investments negative list ( finl ), and the revised corporation code — just to name a few. the newly amended bsp charter in 2019 has also strengthened the bsp ’ s capacity to better safeguard price and financial stability, and to promote an efficient payments and settlements 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches system amidst a growing economy and the increasing sophistication of the financial system. all these reforms should support and sustain the currently favorable conditions of the economy, summarized by the four key observations i mentioned earlier. let me expound of these at this point. philippine macroeconomic performance first, solid and sustainable economic growth. the philippines recorded its 82nd consecutive quarter or roughly more than twenty years of uninterrupted economic growth in the second quarter of 2019. this shows that we have managed to sail through the toughest external challenges from the asian financial crisis to the global financial crisis. on the production side, economic growth was propelled mainly by the robust performance of the services sector. meanwhile, broad - based expansion in household consumption and government spending reinforced growth on the demand side. the build, build, build program ushers in the country ’ s golden age of infrastructure, giving additional solid push for the economy ’ s productive capacity to expand further. second, domestic inflation is within - target. after posting successive multi - year highs that culminated in a 6. 7 percent nine - year peak in september and october, inflation has slowed considerably and reverted to within the target range of 2. 0 to 4. 0 percent. this is credited to a series of monetary actions by the bsp that addressed brewing second - round effects combined with and non - monetary actions by the government that addressed bottlenecks to food supply. the decelerating trend in inflation, which fell to 0. 9 percent in september, has allowed us to reduce the interest rate

on the bsp ’ s overnight reverse repurchase ( rrp ) facility by 75 basis points so far this year to 4. 0 percent. the rate cuts were aimed at helping inflation move towards the middle of the target range, in line with the bsp ’ s flexible approach to inflation targeting. in terms of the bsp ’ s outlook for inflation, our latest baseline projections in september show inflation settling within the target range of 3. 0 percent ± 1. 0 percentage point for both 2019 and 2020. third, the country ’ s external position is reflective of an economy driven by solid macroeconomic fundamentals and firm growth prospects. based on the latest estimates, the country ’ s balance of payments ( bop ) position for the first eight ( 8 ) months of the year posted a surplus of us $ 5. 5 billion, a turnaround from the us $ 2. 4 billion deficit recorded in the same period last year. for q2 2019, the current account registered a deficit of us $ 145 million, a 95. 6 percent reduction from the us $ 3. 3 billion deficit registered in the same quarter in 2018. this developed on account mainly of the lower deficit in the trade - in - goods account. increased net receipts trade - in - services, and secondary and in the primary income also contributed to the improvement of the current account in the second quarter of the year. driving this surplus includes reliable inflows from overseas filipinos ’ ( of ) remittances and net inflows of portfolio investments during the first half of the year. foreign direct investments ( fdis ) in the last two ( 2 ) years have also lent support to the country ’ s external account along with rising investor confidence. meanwhile, after falling by 1. 8 percent, year - on - year in 2018 exports begun to recover slightly, edging up to $ 40. 391 billion in the first seven ( 7 ) months in 2019. july itself marked the fourth straight month of export growth at 3. 5 percent. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches these steady inflows of foreign exchange helped raise gross international reserves ( gir ) to an all - time high of us $ 86. 2 billion in september 2019, providing ample external liquidity buffer. at this level, the gir can cover up to 7. 5 months ’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. the rule of thumb is that a sufficient gir level can cover three months ’