amando m tetangco, jr : we are all wealth watchers speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the wealth watch book launch, manila, 3 july 2015. * * * this is the second time this week that we are launching a document related to financial empowerment. just two days ago, we launched the national strategy for financial inclusion, the document signed by 13 government agencies ( including the bsp ) which sets the strategic map for a unified national financial inclusion landscape. it is a living document that is meant to be populated by tactical plans of each of the agencies involved. and it is envisioned that following the launch, significant partnerships among government agencies as well as with the private sector would ensue. as you know, we had the queen of the netherlands, the un secretary general ’ s special advocate for financial inclusion for development, queen maxima, witness that occasion as our special guest. while we do not have a queen with us today, we are most privileged to have you our most significant partners in this journey of financial literacy and education and consumer protection to share this occasion with us. today, we launch a different document. a book. in fact, a “ wealth book ”. unlike the nsfi, this wealth watch book is not authored by 13 government agencies, but the book is authored by those “ closer to home ” – by our very own bspers from the financial consumer protection department ( fcpd ). the book is not for those who have no access to financial products and services but, it is for those who have a little bit more than others well, perhaps significantly more but who may need to be just as “ watchful ” in many respects, however, this book and the nsfi are about the same. because like the nsfi, our wealth watch book deals with information, and how you can make that information “ work ” for you. it is about stewardship of what you have. it is about preparing for unexpected events. it is about growth and growing what you have so you can have more. our launch today brings to mind the nba draft. at each draft, media would focus on how those towering “ boys ” who ’ ve been drafted would now move from “ living within tight college budgets ” to becoming and i quote from yahoo sports “ money making machines ”. sadly, however, we so often hear

appropriate measure for assessing price stability. the governing council additionally recognised that a more comprehensive inclusion of the costs related to owner - occupied housing in the hicp would better represent the inflation relevant for households, as well as enhance the representativeness and cross - country comparability of the hicp. in doing so, the governing council also took into account the feedback received directly from the public in a sequence of “ ecb listens ” events, where it was frequently highlighted that many participants considered housing - related costs to be an important element in overall household expenditure. the importance of accounting for housing - ownership related costs is underlined by the high share of owners, which stands at around 65 per cent on average in the euro area, and ranges from around 50 per cent to 90 per cent across countries. analytically, a greater weight on housing in the overall price index would elevate the importance of domestic sources of inflation, since construction and housing - related services have a significant non - tradables component. since the hicp is largely constructed by tracking actual monetary transactions, the governing council prefers the “ net acquisition ” method for calculating owner - occupied housing costs by directly drawing on purchase prices. this approach is already used by australia and new zealand in calculating quarterly consumer price indices. an alternative approach to quantifying owner - occupied housing costs is the rental equivalence method, which captures the opportunity cost of owner occupancy by imputing the rental income forgone by not letting the dwelling to a tenant. imputed rents are used in the consumer price indices in the united states and in japan, and in the national consumer price indices of germany and the netherlands. in the united kingdom, imputed rents are included in the national consumer price index but the bank of england is charged with a targeting a variant that excludes owner - occupied housing costs. of course, imputed rents are also included in the measurement of output in the national accounts. as published by eurostat, an owner - occupied housing price index ( oohpi ) is available with a quarterly frequency for the euro area and the eu, as well as for all member states with the current exception of greece. [ 5 ] however, these data are published with a delay of more than three months, which is a considerable lag for monetary policy purposes. still, by making informal calculations of plausible weights for owner - occupied housing in overall household expenditure, it is possible to make some experimental and provisional calculations of a synthetic consumer price index that