‘Gloomy Philippines outlook? Kiss IMF chief, change her mind’

MANILA, Philippines — A simple kiss could change International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde’s gloomy outlook on the Philippines, according to President Duterte.

“Alam mo ‘yan si Lagarde, nakita ko ‘yan… Just pull her into a corner, halikan mo lang, p***** i**, mag-iba ang isip niyan (You know, Lagarde, I’ve seen her… Just pull her into a corner, kiss her, son of a ****, she will change her mind),” Duterte said yesterday.

“She’s quite old but she’s good. I met her several times,” said the President, who has been criticized for demeaning women in his speeches.

In an impromptu talk before finance and central bank officials at Heroes Hall at Malacañang, Duterte said he wanted to know from Lagarde, a former finance chief of France, the reasons for the IMF’s gloomy outlook on the Philippines.

“I am tempted to ask what’s the standard of your classification, how rich and poor we are, or the enterprises of the world,” he said.

“So we have a long way to go. I happen to (have) just three more years with the help of (Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III) and you, in particular,” Duterte said, before he was corrected that he still has four years of his six-year term.

The President’s statement came after the IMF reportedly cautioned lawmakers about pushing through with the second phase of the tax reform package of his administration as the body has projected that the country’s inflation will keep going up beyond the target of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

“Inflation should remain within the target band... but the authorities will need to watch carefully for building inflation pressure, as well as rapid credit growth,” the IMF said in its latest Asia-Pacific regional economic outlook.

The Duterte administration’s tax reform law – which lowers personal income taxes while raising excise levies on fuel and cigarettes, among others – has been blamed for the recent jump in prices of widely used goods and services.