the philippine economy, as shown in our credit ratings. on february 18, 2022, fitch ratings affirmed the philippines ’ credit rating of “ bbb, ” a notch above minimum investment grade, citing economic gains that demonstrate sustained recovery from the covid - 19 crisis. the country has maintained the same rating from fitch and other debt watchers throughout the pandemic, despite a wave of rating downgrades in many other countries. moving on to economic outlook … considering the recent economic developments and continued improvement in vaccination efforts, we are optimistic that there is sufficient support for the country ’ s recovery in the near term. the management of risks through calibrated quarantine restrictions, the expected revitalization of key industries due to government policy support and structural reforms, and the improvement of the global economy should help the economy to accelerate in 2022. after a higher - than - government - target growth at 5. 6 percent in 2021, the government projects that the philippine economy will grow by 7. 0 to 9. 0 percent in 2022, and by 6. 0 to 7. 0 percent in 2023. the restoration of global growth with the easing of restrictions in many jurisdictions along with increasing vaccination rates and improving jobs market could contribute to domestic recovery through improvements in exports and remittances. moreover, the create act could shore up investments and business activity and, in turn, boost the country ’ s actual and potential output. the economic development cluster is proposing a 10 - point policy to accelerate and sustain economic recovery. the latest baseline inflation forecasts are within the target range at 3. 7 percent for 2022 and 3. 3 percent for 2023 under the 2018 - based cpi series. meanwhile, the current account deficit is projected to reach 2. 3 percent of gdp in 2022, driven by further widening of the trade - in - goods deficit, as imports growth ( 10. 0 percent ) is seen to continue outpacing exports growth ( 6. 0 percent ). overseas filipino remittances growth in 2022 is expected to stabilize at 4. 0 percent. the projected improvements in global growth prospects and further opening of economies, along with the continued mass use of vaccines to prevent the spread of covid - 19, will support growth of remittances. fdi inflows are projected to reach us $ 8. 5 billion in 2022 amid expectations of improvements in the domestic and global investment climate this year. however, economic recovery

eli m remolona : establishing a benchmark yield curve - why we need it and how can we do it? speech by mr eli m remolona, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the 40th environmental scanning exercise, manila, 7 june 2024. * * * members of the monetary board, bsp ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ) colleagues, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. let me add my welcome to mbm ( monetary board member ) annie's ( anita linda aquino ) welcome. welcome to this 40th environmental scanning exercise ( ese ). this year marks a milestone. we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of this exercise. for the past two decades, ese has been fertile ground for policy discussions at the bsp. today our focus is on the topic, " building a benchmark yield curve using interest rate swaps. " i have my own strong views on this topic, but because we have such an excellent lineup of presenters and discussions, i expect those views to change. allow me to share those views. as many of you know, a benchmark yield curve is something we need to strengthen the transmission mechanism of our monetary policy. it is also part and parcel of the goal of developing the country's capital markets. a benchmark yield curve is one that serves to reconcile the diverse views of market participants. this makes it very useful for pricing other instruments including mortgages and corporate term loans. at present, we rely on something called bval ( bloomberg valuation service ) for our yield curve. i have described this curve as a very choppy curve. that choppiness is an indication of a fragmented bond market with liquidity shifting from one maturity to another. perhaps, one way to fix this is to revive our interest rate swap market. i say revive because i was told we used to have such market and i do not understand why it died. in the eurozone, when that economy switched to a common currency in 2000, their bond market was also a fragmented one. the most active ones were the german bond market, the italian bond market, and the french bond market, in that order in terms of turnover. then, an amazing thing happened out of nowhere. the euro interest rate swap market emerged. by 2001, within one year, the turnover in the swap market had surpassed the turnover in those other three