Tetangco named best in Asia-Pacific

MANILA, Philippines - Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. has been chosen by The Banker, a publication of the Financal Times Group, as Central Banker of the Year for Asia-Pacific.

“The Philippines has performed strongly in the past year, and its growth in the third quarter of 2012 was the second highest in Asia after China,” the BSP said in a statement quoting The Banker magazine.

“The sound monetary policy of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and its Governor, Amando Tetangco, have contributed to these improvements that have recently pushed the Philippines into the spotlight,” it added.

The latest award followed two early plums for Tetangco, who has been sitting at BSP’s helm for nearly eight years now. In August, Global Finance Magazine rated Tetangco “A” along with five others, while in October, Emerging Markets Magazine also named him Central Bank Governor for Asia.

The three publications are one in crediting the BSP for keeping inflation in check amid beyond-expectation economic growth last year. Despite the local economy expanding by 6.5 percent as of the third quarter, inflation even slowed to a five-year low of 3.2 percent for the whole of 2012.

 â€œSuch a benign inflation environment has allowed us to implement monetary policy supportive of economic growth, which was 6.5 percent for the first three quarters of 2012,” The Banker quoted Tetangco as saying in an article on its website.

The country’s “strong” economic performance has been noticed even by credit rating agencies, The Banker said.

 â€œRatings upgrades in the past year have put the Philippines just one notch away from investment grade — the level of Indonesia — which the country now has its sights on,” the magazine said.