conducive to a balanced and sustainable growth of the economy. promoting macroeconomic stability is crucial because it serves as a solid springboard for households and businesses to flourish. as us president franklin d. roosevelt famously declared in his state of the union address in 1944, and i quote : “ true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ” indeed, ensuring economic stability and security is in the best interest of a nation. i am pleased to report therefore that we continue to register solid gains in providing a stable environment for our economy to grow and for our people to benefit from opportunities that development brings. among others, philippine inflation in may was 1. 6 %, our lowest in 20 years. at this rate, we are able to preserve and protect the purchasing power of our people. by comparison, our inflation reached its highest at 50 % in 1984 or three decades ago, when problems related to politics and economics converged. we had a debt crisis : with our gross international reserves insufficient to meet our overseas obligations, we declared a moratorium on foreign debt payments, which in turn triggered a credit freeze. as a consequence, government had bis central bankers ’ speeches to ration scarce foreign exchange by prioritizing importation of critical commodities such as oil, medicines, and dairy products. the credit squeeze also pushed domestic interest rates higher, with housing loans going for over 30 %. it was during this period when many filipinos went overseas to find better opportunities. today, things are so much better in the philippines. we now have ample international reserves that have enabled us to fully prepay our loans to the international monetary fund, after 45 years of indebtedness. and we have liberalized foreign exchange transactions. among others, with minimal documentation, individuals can purchase as much as one hundred twenty thousand dollars ( $ 120, 000. 00 ) per transaction from banks. interest rates have also been lower, with some housing loans going for 5 % per year. the banking system is sound, stable and liquid, with bank capitalization more than compliant with global standards. in fact, last year, in a field of 69 jurisdictions, the philippine banking system earned the distinction of receiving the only positive outlook rating from moody ’ s. moving forward, we are confident that our banks can hold their own when asean banking integration takes place by 2020, as part of the wider implementation of the asean economic community ( aec ) by the end of 2015. in preparation for this, a new law was passed

amando m tetangco, jr : nurturing financially literate filipinos speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of the central bank of the philippines ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ), at the moa signing on the “ deped - bsp - epra financial literacy project, manila, 12 april 2007. * * * secretary jesli lapus, dr. cielito habito, our partners from the department of education and epra, special guests from the bankers association of the philippines and the chamber of thrift banks, fellow central bankers. magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat! on behalf of the members of the monetary board, i thank our partners at the department of education and epra for sharing our goal to teach money management to our elementary students and to transform them into net savers. specifically, our program involves the incorporation into the elementary curriculum lessons in saving and money management, as well as the values of pagka - masinop ( prudence / avoiding waste ), pagkamatipid ( thrift ), and pag - iimpok ( saving ). a survey indicating that less than 5 % of our youth regularly save money lends urgency to our program. if we can turn the tide with our present crop of elementary pupils, this will have long - term benefits for them and, ultimately, our country. add to this the potential influence they can wield in their homes and in their communities as change agents. actually, there are other initiatives that are underway under our economic and financial literacy program. in particular, the bangko sentral is at the forefront of a money management program for ofws and their families ; microfinance for the entrepreneurial poor ; continuing economic and financial education for journalists ; and consumer protection for bank customers. we are also set to establish economic and financial literacy centers in bsp offices in the province. of course nurturing a new generation of savers and financially literate adults entails a lot of work and unflagging commitment from all of us. for this, we need all the help we can get. this is the reason why we at the bangko sentral are very pleased that no less than the heads of our principal partners are here with us this morning. ladies and gentlemen, let us give a big hand to the honorable secretary of education jesli lapus who is known for his ability to transform