Felipe Medalla has sworn in as the 6th governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
FELIPE MEDALLA — Microeconomist Felipe M. Medalla has officially sworn in as the sixth governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Medalla took his oath of office in Malacanang on June 30, after the inauguration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., with other cabinet and high-ranking officials of the Marcos administration.
He has been a member of the central bank’s policy-making body, the Monetary Board, since 2011 after being appointed by the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
Medalla is also a two-term Monetary Board member after his reappointment by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.
As the new BSP chief, Medalla will serve the last remaining year of former BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno, who was appointed finance secretary by then President-elect Bongbong Marcos last May.
The former BSP chief expressed confidence in his successor’s central banking expertise. Diokno also noted Medalla’s “remarkable professional record” that made him a “perfect fit for a central bank governor amid challenging times”.
“With him at the helm of the BSP and I at the Department of Finance, we wish to continue working well with the media so that the Filipino people are kept informed of vital policies, programs, and developments,” Diokno said.
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Recently, Medalla said that the Monetary Board may consider a one-time 50 basis points (bps) policy rate increase on August 18 if inflation will increase “higher than expected”.
The new BSP chief is also projecting a “good” GDP (gross domestic product) performance for the 2nd quarter.
He believed that it could be better than the 1st quarter because “people are almost unafraid of Covid”, but it will be difficult to match the 8.3% GDP growth in the 1st quarter because of base effects.
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