THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor has been recognized as one of the top-performing central bank governors worldwide, earning an “A-” rating for his first year in office.
Global Finance magazine’s 2024 Central Banker Report Cards acknowledged BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. for his work as the country’s central bank chief.
Remolona, who succeeded Felipe Medalla in June of last year, received the third-highest grade in the report.
Grades range from “A+” for outstanding performance to “F” for failure, assessing success in areas like inflation control, economic growth, currency stability and interest rate management.
This month, Global Finance announced only the names of central bank leaders who received “A” ratings — ranging from A+ to A-. The complete report card will be published in its October edition.
Central bank leaders from Denmark, India and Switzerland received “A+” ratings.
Meanwhile, seven central bank heads from Brazil, Chile, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam earned “A” ratings.
Additionally, central bank chiefs from Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the European Union, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Mongolia, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Sweden, and the United States also received “A-” ratings.
“Central bankers have waged war against inflation over the past few years, wielding their primary weapon: higher interest rates. Now, countries around the world are witnessing the tangible results of these efforts, as inflation has dropped significantly,” Global Finance founder and Editorial Director Joseph Giarraputo said.
“Global Finance’s annual Central Banker Report Cards honor those bank leaders whose strategies outperformed their peers through originality, creativity and tenacity,” he added.
Remolona has taken strong measures to control Philippine inflation, raising the key policy rate to a 17-year high of 6.5 percent, including an emergency 25-basis-point (bps) rate hike during an off-cycle meeting that he led in October last year as consumer price growth accelerated to 6.1 percent in September 2023.
Inflation has increased again last month to 4.4 percent, higher than the 3.7 percent recorded in the previous month due to rising prices of electricity, fuel and key food items.
The BSP chief, however, expects inflation to decline in the coming months, settling within the 2.0 to 4.0 percent target this year.
This, with the recent developments in the country’s economic growth, has given the central bank enough space to finally reduce the key rates by 25 bps to 6 percent.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth unexpectedly surged to 6.3 percent in the second quarter, boosted by government spending.
Remolona said another 25 bps rate cut is possible before the year ends.
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