for financial consumers, is itself a clear winning bet for tomorrow. together, we have taken what was perennially a difficult financial market situation in the late 90s into an environment that has withstood global shocks. ladies and gentlemen, today, our market is on every investor ’ s radar screen. i ask all of you : where do you want this market to be as we hold the 3rd, 4th and 5th philippine international banking conference and perhaps the 1st, 2nd and 3rd asian banking summit? i have every reason to believe that we all share the same answers. let us then do our part as we lift the philippine banking system further forward as a responsive platform for the needs of the filipino in the asian, if not global, platform. thank you very much. bis central bankers ’ speeches

happy therefore that when we tracked the correlation between the results of our expectation surveys with actual data on the gdp, inflation, interest rates and foreign exchange we found high overall convergence. ladies and gentlemen, we continue to achieve high correlation because you provide us accurate, comprehensive and timely survey inputs. thank you! as a result, the bangko sentral ’ s policy decisions continue to provide the stability that preserves the public ’ s purchasing power and creates a planning environment conducive to strong and sustainable growth. with bsp ’ s policy rates now at record low levels, average interest rates charged by banks to their customers have also dropped to single digit levels. this has benefitted consumers in terms of access to more affordable credit while business is able to expand and create new jobs with lower financing costs. bis central bankers ’ speeches moving forward, therefore, the bangko sentral will continue to focus on fighting inflation and safeguarding price stability to achieve sustained and inclusive growth. the bangko sentral also needs your support for other surveys including cross border transactions, coordinated portfolio investment, information technology - bpo outsourcing services, and foreign direct investment. among others, these surveys help us determine our balance of payments position, a closelywatched indicator of our transactions with the rest of the world. we are pleased to report that our external accounts remain robust, providing much - needed insulation from external shocks. external payment dynamics remain strong on the back of rising foreign exchange reserves, sustained influx of overseas filipino remittances and bpo receipts, and declining external debt to gdp ratio. i am also happy to note that our network of committed partners continues to expand. from seven in 2004, we now have 71 awardees, 42 of whom are in areas outside the national capital region. ladies and gentlemen. as we take stock of our achievements, we also take note that the resiliency of our economy strongly reflects the efficient performance of our information sharing initiatives. indeed, our partnership continues to generate synergies that lead to transformational growth. and while recent developments in the external front have made economic conditions more challenging, we have been able to ride out these headwinds to economic growth. we attribute these largely to the strength of our partnerships and to the buffers that the philippine economy has built through the years. another source of strength of the philippine economy is our sound and stable banking system. deposits continue to increase to record levels, in tandem with healthy growth in lending. and the quality of loans continues