see greater empowerment of both the public and private sectors. greater efficiencies of electronic payment channels will also bring about an accelerated velocity of payments, increasing economic activities. we see a rise in public confidence in making electronic payments — this can, and will result in positive culture change! as more and more consumers gain confidence in making electronic payments, we look forward to the market expanding with more innovations. participating financial institutions are granted greater opportunities to diversify and widen the products and services they offer. innovation in financial services delivery will thrive. with a more efficient retail payments infrastructure, various services will emerge as the needs of financial consumers evolve and become more sophisticated. we anticipate the emergence of a new competitive space where service innovation is encouraged. new business models, technologies, industry wide collaborations and partnerships will be developed. with the implementation of nrps and the launch of new achs such as 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches instapay, financial institutions will be challenged to develop innovative business models customized to their target markets ’ needs, to ensure client loyalty, and to better compete for market share. our efforts in implementing the nrps are rapidly providing individuals, businesses and government, additional options on how to complete payments, collections or disbursements, depending on their specific needs and the characteristics of the fund transfers or payments. right now as we launch instapay, we have seven ( 7 ) pioneer bsp - supervised financial institutions capable of sending and receiving payments. in addition, another thirteen ( 13 ) are able to receive payments. by the middle of this year — in a few months — we expect more financial institutions to participate in instapay. in parallel, the bsp is engaging the private sector and the government to encourage their adoption of instapay and pesonet to meet their payment system requirements. we now have critical mass. it is only a matter of time before we attain widespread usage. ladies and gentlemen, the digital transformation of financial services is happening now! the country ’ s financial services industry needs to evolve to remain competitive and relevant. the steps we have taken to implement the nrps — the launch of pesonet and now, instapay, would not have been possible without constant and close dialogue and collaboration with you, our partners in the industry and with the philippine payments management inc. ( ppmi ), an industryled self - governing body and an important ally in pursuing nrps goals. our collaboration and cooperation is

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