Legarda Meets IMF’s Lagarde on PH-IMF Cooperation, Climate Change, Other Emerging Issues

Senator Loren Legarda has expressed her appreciation to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde for the IMF’s partnership with the Philippines and its work on climate change and other emerging issues such as gender diversity and income equality.

Legarda and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who jointly headed the Philippine Delegation to the 2018 Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group in Washington D.C., together with Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez, met with Lagarde to discuss the Philippine economy, IMF’s work on “emerging issues”, and areas of cooperation between the IMF and the Philippines.

“We are most thankful to the IMF for providing us support, mainly through technical assistance, which has helped strengthen Philippine institutions, including the domestic capital market,” said Legarda.

“It is noteworthy that the IMF has already mainstreamed in its surveillance and research work issues such as climate change, gender diversity, income equality and social cohesion, which are essential in ensuring that macroeconomic outlook for any country is sustainable,” she stressed.

The research work of the IMF in these emerging issues has consisted, among others, of pilot studies in relevant member countries, with broad coverage both geographically and across income levels. Other relevant issues are governance and digitization.

Senator Legarda and Secretary Diokno shared with Lagarde the Philippine government’s initiatives, both the executive and legislative departments, in strengthening the country’s economic growth—through the “Build, Build, Build” program, tax reform, and budget reform—while also improving the human capital through free education up to the tertiary level, universal healthcare coverage, livelihood programs, and the conditional cash transfer program.

For her part, Lagarde congratulated the Philippines on its strong economic performance, noting the solid work on improving fiscal spending to make it growth-friendly, broadening the tax base to ensure programs are funded adequately, and the excellent work on improving transparency.