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THE
official tally is out: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
lost money in 2007 to the tune of P89.22 billion.
This
represented a complete turnaround from net earnings of
P1 billion the year before.
The BSP
lost money last year on account of the appreciation of
the peso by 11.19 percent to P46.1484 per dollar versus
the P51.3143 per dollar in 2006.
BSP
Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. also had to spend billions
more last year to take out some of the excess liquidity
via expensive special deposit accounts (SDAs) that the
banks had a good time investing in.
Tetangco
said SDAs have lost some of the allure as the
instruments have now been priced off the BSP’s borrowing
rate, now lower than the short-dated Treasury bills
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves sells every two weeks.
Teves
reported a public-sector surplus of P36.351 billion, or
0.5 percent of last year’s gross domestic product.
Teves
actually expected to post a deficit of P63-billion deep
last year, but ended up reporting a shallower deficit of
only P12.441 billion.
But
while the core government sector performed better than
the program, the other public sector which lumps the
local government units (LGUs), the government financial
institutions (GFIs), the state-owned pension firms and
the BSP did not do as well.
The
other public sector was earlier seen to post a surplus
of at least P45.726 billion, but the central bank’s
losses caused the sector to incur a combined deficit of
P14.506 billion instead.
Only the
BSP reported a net loss of P89.22 billion last year as
the pension firms proved profitable with combined
profits of P41.731 billion, the various GFIs with
profits of their own totaling P7.899 billion and LGUs
with surplus of P24.386 billion.
In any
case, the consolidated public sector (CPS) balance
posted a revised surplus of P36.351 billion instead of
the anticipated deficit of P80.815 billion.
Under
the original CPS deficit scenario, Teves was expected to
post a shortfall of P63 billion but managed to limit it
to only P12.441 billion.
The 14
monitored government corporations, earlier seen to post
a deficit of P55.458 billion, surprised Teves with a
surplus of P60.86 billion instead.
In the
end, Teves, recently rewarded by his confirmation at the
finance portfolio by the powerful Commission on
Appointments, pulled a pleasant surprise; even as
Tetangco, voted one of the best central bankers in the
world in 2007, suffered disappointment. |
