Philippine E-Journals

Monitoring the Philippine Economy

Elmer A. Abueg

Discipline: Economics

 

Abstract:

Twenty years ago, the industrializing world talked of a perpetual dollar shortage and worried over future sources of liquidity (Banks, 1981). The Philippines then had just been pulled out of the period of import controls, which - no matter how you look at it now - did not show any degree of effectiveness throughout its eleven-year existence (1950-61). While imports grew roughly at about 5 per cent a year during the period, exports expanded by only about 4 per cent a year, and thus we saw the impression of a "no-dollar import" law in 1962 (Encarnacion, 1976). Despite the law, however, the pressure to devalue the peso, coming from Filipino exporters and foreign investors alike, became even more forceful. Ultimately this led to the adoption of a multiple exchange rate system and the fixing of the rate at Php3.90 to U.S. $1.00.