strong domestic economy and promote a high quality of life for all filipinos. at the end of my talk, i will be leaving some takeaways from the bsp that you may consider as you return to your work, plan your businesses, and execute your mandates. the international monetary fund ( imf ), in its october 2019 world economic outlook ( w eo ), forewarns that the global economy is in a synchronized slowdown. its forecast for 2019 global growth was at 3 percent, downgraded from the april 2019 w eo forecast, and the slowest since the global financial crisis. the imf attributed the sluggish growth to rising trade barriers, trade and geopolitical uncertainties, and idiosyncratic as well as structural economic factors in individual countries. for 2020, the imf forecasts a precarious global growth at a similarly downgraded 3. 4 percent. against this backdrop, our country has posted 85 quarters of uninterrupted economic growth. for seven of the last eight years, we recorded an annual gdp growth of more than 6 percent. these accomplishments helped us achieve our highest credit rating from the s & p global ratings of bbb +, two steps above the minimum investment grade rating. the other big global raters – 1 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches moody ’ s and fitch, place us a step above the minimum investment grade. meanwhile, government agencies are coordinating their efforts for the philippines ’ road to a rating. the higher credit ratings enable us to borrow at lower interest rates with the perception of less credit risk as reflected in the rating. above all these, the philippines remains among the fastest growing economies, not only in asia but also in the world. we should take pride that we are actually among the drivers to global growth amid the imf ’ s gloomy projections. this economic growth streak will enable the philippines to achieve an upper - middle - income status by late next year according to the national economic development authority ( neda ). nonetheless, our economy is not immune from international uncertainties as the country is part of the global economy. volatility in price levels globally, including oil, impacts the bsp ’ s mandate to promote price stability conducive to a balanced and sustainable growth of the economy. to achieve this mandate, the bsp has adopted inflation targeting since january 2002. it adjusts its monetary policy instruments, primarily its policy rates, to achieve its inflation target. the

holders of safe assets have no reason to pass judgement about their probability of default in difficult times. admittedly, the definition is partly self - referential. in the end, assets are just as safe as they are expected to be and as a consequence they are prone to abrupt shifts in confidence. yet perceptions of safety can be established by making assets intrinsically safe ( or safer ), by guaranteeing their safety through government or central bank action, or labelling them safe to confirm their safety ( e. g. using credit ratings or regulatory labelling – a less convincing option, as the failure of credit ratings has shown in the great financial crisis ). 7 safety is, in other words, an outcome of an institutional and legal framework. 8 in most advanced economies, the institutional framework has been designed to ensure that certain types of assets are always perceived as safe given their importance to the functioning of the economy. the most important is the ultimate safe asset, base money ( or cash ), where safety is guaranteed by two factors : trust in the central bank that protects its value and trust in the rule of law – the security of contract, the fairness of the judicial process, and so on. these institutions help us understand why, even as trust in some euro area sovereigns waned during the crisis, trust in the euro as a currency remained high across the union and beyond. 9 there was never any question that the central bank would sacrifice price stability or that the rule of law would be compromised. the same logic applies to private bank money. states have ensured the safety of bank money by guaranteeing the share most relevant for transactions, i. e. deposit insurance, and in exchange they hold banks to a “ social contract ” through a high degree of supervision and regulation. 10 what we have learned in the euro area, however, is that this contract depends on a uniform institutional framework across the area of jurisdiction, otherwise bank money is liable to fragment. the response in 2012 was banking union, which re - establishes the contract at the level of the union. 11 2 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches and in most advanced economies, as well as in most macroeconomic models, government debt is always perceived to be safe, too. there is ( effectively ) full consolidation between the balance sheet of the central bank and that of the fiscal authority, making government debt riskfree in nominal terms. the central bank can guarantee its payment in cash and at par in all states of the world. as such,