Philippine central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla said he is recovering from early stage tongue cancer diagnosed in November last year, assuring that it will not distract him from work.
“My doctors say that I’m now cancer-free,” Espenilla, 59, said in a mobile-phone message to reporters from Jerusalem, where he is on a pilgrimage with his wife and friends.
The governor said he had surgery soon after finding out about the cancer, which he described as “very early stage and quite localized.”
Espenilla said that “for insurance” he also went through radiation therapy, which caused speaking difficulties due to dry throat and mouth sores.
These problems will be resolved in time and doctors expect full recovery in a month or so, he said.
“So I don’t expect this curve ball to slow me down,” said the governor, who is seven months into the job.
“I just have to hang on and be patient. Meanwhile, it’s work as usual for me. Onward with the financial market reforms,” he said.
Before revealing his health condition, Espenilla devoted one-thirds of his written comments to assuring that the central bank’s decision to cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) amid rising prices would not fuel more inflation.
He told foreign-exchange speculators that the monetary authority is selling US dollars from its reserves.
“That in itself also has the effect of draining peso liquidity from the system, which causes a self-correction,” he said. “Analyst fears of ensuing looser monetary policy that can fuel more inflation is really unfounded.”
The Philippine peso, which has fallen 3.8 percent, is the second-worst performing emerging-market currency this year after the Argentine peso.
On Monday last week, the Philippine peso fell the most in three weeks after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced a cut in lenders’ RRR from 20 to 19 percent.
While the move effective next month is to free up 90 billion pesos (US$1.7 billion) from banks’ vaults, Espenilla said this is not monetary easing.
Espenilla, who last week said that an interest-rate hike remains on the table amid the fastest inflation last month since 2014, said the central bank can also use the term deposit rates to signal monetary policy stance.
“If BSP wants to change the monetary policy stance, BSP will signal that overtly, by changing the policy rate [reverse repurchase rate or RRP],” Espenilla wrote.
“But it can also do that more subtly without necessarily changing the RRP rate, by allowing the market-determined TDF rates to rise [or fall] by altering auction volumes,” he added.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
RSS