meeting that was not scheduled. and then in the following regular meeting, we raised by another 50 bps [ in august ]. of course, how exactly we will raise the rates in the coming three meetings for the year is anybody's guess. like it or not, what the us does will be the main driver because our inflation is lower than the us, but we cannot afford to have such a small interest rate differential between the peso debt and dollar debt. if the differential is zero, nobody would like the peso. that's the way the global architecture of finance goes. the other reason is we allowed the depreciation of the peso because we saw it working as the market intended. if the prices of imports are rising, then the market should signal that maybe we should buy fewer imported goods. however, but if, in addition to relative scarcity, you have the fed jacking up rates, you can get to the point where the depreciating peso, caused by the fed actions, could disanchor inflationary expectations. the last thing we wanted was that people's expectations about inflation would be driven by what's going on in the exchange rate than what we announced as our [ inflation ] targets. that is essentially how i would describe monetary policy. wherever we're going in the next three meetings will be very data - dependent. the question, of course, that we ask ourselves is, have we killed growth? looking at the market, we are quite confident that what we call the nascent recovery is still there. maybe it's now hard [ er ] to think of [ achieving ] it. personally, i think it's hard to think of 7. 5 percent, but i think the lower end of the targets, as mentioned in the dbcc, is quite doable, the other thing that we see is that the quality of employment is rising. what happened was the wage and salaried employment were the most affected by the pandemic. in an 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches economy with a very little safety net from the government [ for unemployment ], the most common way to help yourself is self - employment. we're beginning to see wage employment recovering. the other advantage of the philippines is that we notice it's fairly easy for monetary policy to stimulate demand. i guess that has to do with a rather optimistic population, and a young one at that. the other thing

and gentlemen : the trust industry has a significant role to play moving forward. hence, bsp will unceasingly look for better ways of helping the industry. we would continue to relax certain regulations that would support your industry ’ s growth while promoting accountability and good governance. in turn, i enjoin the trust industry, under the new leadership, to continue to support the bsp ’ s advocacies on digitalization, financial inclusion, and sustainable capital markets. we hope that trust entities can fully harness the benefits of digitalization, not only through speedy transactions, but also through the delivery of better services. the move toward digitalization also goes hand in hand with financial education. with the easier access to financial products, customers should be made aware of the risks that they may be exposed to due to digitalization. lastly, we hope that the trust industry can take part in the ecosystem for green and sustainable finance in the country. in the region, the association of south east asian nations ( asean ) has been prioritizing the work on setting of asean standards that would boost capital markets that address climate change. the securities and exchange commission, the bsp and the department of finance are actively involved in these initiatives. i am glad to note that a number of banks have already issued products in this space in the past few years and even during the pandemic. let ’ s help build a green and sustainable finance ecosystem for the generations to come. in closing, i commend the new set of officers of toap for accepting this challenge. leading a key financial industry like the trust institutions is not a walk in the park. it requires agility to ensure that all member - institutions, no matter how big or small, are consulted and empowered. it also requires focused and firm leadership that will make sure that the goals and aspirations of your organization will be achieved. as alexander graham bell said, “ great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. ” there are many great minds here. and i look forward to your great discoveries and improvements in the industry. rest assured that bsp will continue to collaborate with you to achieve our common goal to maintain a stable financial system that enjoys the trust and confidence of the investing public. have a productive membership meeting. thank you. mabuhay tayong lahat! 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches