EDGEDAVAO
VOL.5 ISSUE 97 • JULY 18, 2012
THE BIG NEWS
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IMF, preferred debtor By Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
A
N official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the central bank’s preferred debtor among foreign financial institutions. Monetary Stability Sector Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said it is stipulated in the BSP charter that the BSP is authorized to lend money to foreign governments and foreign financial institutions, adding that the money will not be coming from the budget of the national government but from BSP’s gross international reserves. He said the BSP is also authorized to manage its own reserves and can shift from one reserve asset to another. “So what we’re doing is simply pulling out about a billion dollars from our other instruments like Japanese bonds and Euro bonds which
pay the lowest interest rate compared to the interest rate we get from lending to the IMF,” he said. Responding to questions on the kind of priority the government has if it lends money to the IMF while there are so many poor and no enough credit, he said, “They are barking at the wrong tree because the $1 billion will not reduce the budget of the national government. It will be the same.” “We cannot comingle the funds of the BSP and the national government. We don’t ask budget from the national government. We have our own budget, we have our own reserves. We have to manage the reserves of the Philippines. The government cannot touch this money,” he said. If the BSP would not lend the money to the IMF, he said
ROAD OF PROGRESS. Despite the traffic jam that it is causing, driver and commuters are optimistic that the road construction along Quezon Boulevard would
FIMF, 13 bring in more development to the city through high-standard road accessibility. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]