and i thank them, especially my predecessor, [ finance secretary ] ben diokno. but when the three pillars of the central bank are at stake, i am confident that this is where the monetary board would work very hard to protect the independence of the institution. please stand up, my colleagues from the monetary board. we often disagree, but we are never disagreeable. the link between central bank independence and growth the law that explicitly made the central bank independent happened 30 years ago, and we have seen the results in the performance of the economy. often, there are debates about whether managing inflation can sometimes conflict with high economic growth. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches but theory says the predictability of policies of the central bank will also contribute to economic growth. for instance, if inflation is predictable, it makes it very easy for the government to issue longer - term bonds. those who are old enough to remember know that [ back then, ] t - bills [ treasury bills, shorter - term securities ] accounted for maybe 70 percent of the bonds issued by the government because nobody knows what inflation will be many years from now. therefore, i really thank my predecessors, the former central bank governors, but i cannot think of anybody who has contributed more than [ former governor ] say tetangco. [ we had ] 12 years of him [ as central bank governor ]. say played a special role because this was the time we became an inflation - targeting central bank1. in fact, i was asked, " is it a good idea [ to shift to inflation targeting ]? " and i said, it can go both ways : it can be a terrible disaster if the public cannot distinguish between inflation that is due to the fault of the monetary authorities and inflation that is due to things outside of the control of the central bank. it turns out, excellent communication by previous central bank governors set the tone, and it made my job rather easy. again, i thank all of them. the banking system as a pillar of economic strength we ended 2022 in a position of stability and strength. of course, our partners - the banksclearly played a very, very important role. despite covid, our banks remained strong and, indeed, because of that, as soon as the economy opened, it was raring to go, as shown by the 7. 6 - percent economic growth last year. by the way, i think we were abroad then [ when the growth figures were released

felipe m medalla : a future - ready philippines - digital, sustainable, inclusive speech by mr felipe m medalla, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the 2023 annual reception for the banking community, manila, 23 february 2023. * * * to say that this kind of crowd is at least three times bigger than the last one we had in october [ 2022 at the previous bankers'night ] precisely is an understatement. of course, my friend says, " if you are too excited, you should not be a central bank governor. " but it turned out that the fact that we knew that today is a holiday - and the information came only rather late, after 6 : 00 p. m. - turned out to be a blessing. because what we did, of course, was to cancel everything, except the important events of the day - and this is the most important one. to our friends from the banking community ; the diplomatic corps ; partners in nationbuilding ; and, of course, their spouses ; ladies and gentlemen, magandang gabi. on behalf of the monetary board, i officially welcome you to our bankers'night. by the way, people were asking me, " did we not just have one [ bankers'night ] in october [ 2022 ]? " the answer is yes. [ the ] october [ reception ] was [ intended ] to make up for the pandemic because we had not met for a long time, and this [ year's ] meeting is to start the ball rolling again. we will have this every year, we hope. marking 30 years as an independent monetary authority while the previous receptions were memorable in their own rights - i speak from experience because i have attended 11 of them - 2023 is extra special because this year, we mark the 30th day of the bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp ). remember, we used to be called the central bank of the philippines ( cbp ). it was 30 years ago, in 1993, when the bsp was created to replace the cbp. it took some time but that law, implemented in the constitution of 1987, says that there must be an independent monetary authority. what really happened was only one cabinet member was allowed to be on the monetary board. by the way, whoever he is, and especially right now, they make great inputs.