Monday, October 01, 2018

The BSP in a Panic: Drastically Hikes Policy Rates and Slashes Deficit Financing To Curb Demand as M3 Growth Plunges!

The difficulty of having people understand monetary theory is very simple—the central banks are good at press relations. The central banks hire people and the central banks employ a large fraction of all economists so there is a bias to tell the case—the story—in a way that is favorable to the central banks. — Milton Friedman

In this issue:

The BSP in a Panic: Drastically Hikes Policy Rates and Slashes Deficit Financing To Curb Demand as M3 Growth Plunges!
-Rising Interest Rates Represent a Global Phenomenon
-The Inflation Club in Motion, The BSP Gambles by Curbing Demand
-What Happened to BSP’s Inflation Targeting Policy? The National Government’s Low Margin of Safety
-BSP in Panic: Drastically Hikes Policy Rates in the Face of Plunging M3 Growth!
-BSP in Panic: Slashes Deficit Monetization in August! Build, Build, Build Prices Fall!
-National Government Used External Debt to Finance Record Deficit, Peso Will Rally Temporarily on the BSP’s Dramatic Tightening

The BSP in a Panic: Drastically Hikes Policy Rates and Slashes Deficit Financing To Curb Demand as M3 Growth Plunges!

Remember this?

From the BusinessWorld (September 14, 2018): “We are not in a major crisis. It may be a serious problem for some people, but for the nation in general it’s not a major crisis,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters yesterday at the Senate…“It was decided that there will be no off-cycle (meeting). You really think we are panicking? You are panicking, not us. That’s why you have to have perspective,” he said.” (bold added)

Recent actions, not comments or denials, should reveal on who DID panic.

Rising Interest Rates Represent a Global Phenomenon

First, the big picture.  

The Reuters reported: “China, Taiwan and New Zealand sat tight after the Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike, but Indonesia and the Philippines pulled the trigger on Thursday to prop up their battered currencies and temper risks to inflation and financial stability.”

Led by the US Federal Reserve, the Philippines and Indonesia were among the 12 nations which central banks have increased interest rates this week

Rising interest rates represents a global phenomenon. Or, global liquidity is in the process of receding substantially.
 
Figure 1

So access to external funding will become increasingly scarce which will be reflected by rising rates.

Yields of 10-year bonds of the Philippine sovereign and its equivalent in UST Treasuries have moved in a lockstep fashion since 2016. (figure 1, upper window)

However, coupon differentials have risen faster in the Philippines (figure 1 lower window)

The reduced access to external funding which is reflected by its increased costs should lead to diminished cross-border arbitrages (carry trades) and investment flows.

And reduced cross-border transactions will be magnified by the escalation of protectionist policies.

Importantly, real servicing costs of domestic exposure on external liabilities should also balloon.

Now if access to external funding has become more prohibitive, how about domestic financing?

As noted above, this week’s 50 basis points rate hike added to the cumulative 100 bps increases during the BSP’s last three meetings (MayJune and August). Or policy rates soared by 150 bps in the last 5+ months!

Compared to Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia, which increased rates by the same proportion in 5 months, the 4-four month action by the BSP reflects the degree of apprehension by monetary authorities.

Despite the Indonesian rupiah falling to 1997-98 levels, the BSP jacked up rates faster than its neighbor!

So who panicked?

The Inflation Club in Motion, The BSP Gambles by Curbing Demand

Last week’s BSP’s policy action had been characterized by mainstream media (Inquirer September 28) as follows: (emphasis mine)

Saying the country’s near decade-high inflation rate may get worse in the coming months, the central bank yesterday raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points, marking the most aggressive monetary policy tightening streak since the crisis-ridden Joseph Estrada presidency.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said the rate hike—the second half percentage point increase in two months, and the fourth consecutive over four Monetary Board meetings since May—was necessary to “further anchor inflation expectations and to safeguard the inflation target over the policy horizon.”

“The Monetary Board recognized that a further tightening of monetary policy was warranted by persistent signs of sustained and broadening price pressures,” she said, briefing the media in lieu of BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. who is on medical leave.

The last time the BSP raised interest rates this aggressively was in May 2000 when the peso was dropping sharply during the administration of President Estrada. That month, the central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points twice in a single week to defend the currency from speculative attacks.

Explaining the Monetary Board’s latest decision, Fonacier said that the latest baseline forecasts for inflation “have shifted higher for both 2018 and 2019, with risks to the outlook still leaning toward the upside. With supply-side forces expected to continue to drive inflation in the coining months, inflation expectations have remained elevated amidindications of second-round effects.”…

Fonacier explained that a tighter monetary policy stance would help steer inflation toward a target-consistent path over the medium term by reducing further risks to the inflation outlook, including those emanating from exchange rate volatility given the continued uncertainty in the external environment amid geopolitical tensions and the normalization of monetary policy in advanced economies.

In order not misquote, the first five paragraphs and the eighth paragraph has been excerpted in full.

Heck, just where in the six paragraphs does it show how rising rates will “further anchor inflation expectations”, curb “supply-side forces” and “help steer inflation toward a target-consistent path”???

How are interest rates transmitted to the economy to affect statistical inflation???

That inflation is all about policy levers, constructed out of abstruse econometrics, has represented the essence of BSP's programming of the public's beliefs.

The gullible laypeople have been told to accept, without question, the technical wizardry of authorities.

See what I mean by this?

The first rule of the Inflation Club is: You do not talk about the BSP’s contribution. The second rule of the Inflation Club is: Remember the First rule.


To better understand the communique’s opaqueness, the BSP-led FSCC FSR’s report lays out the source of the country’s risk.

The low interest rate environment greatly encouraged the search for yield as greater risks were taken in exchange for higher returns. However, the change in market prices (i.e., rising interest rates and depreciating peso against the US dollar) could trigger negative outcomes which, if not properly addressed, would amplify into systemic consequences (p.24)

Cutting through the fog of technical jargon, since interest rates represent the price of time expressed in money in the loanable fund markets, higher rates should mean reduced demand for credit. And such would likewise entail a reduction in the demand for goods and services dependent on credit finance. Consequently, diminished demand should lower prices.

Yes folks, in desperation, the BSP have decided to implement policies that would WITHDRAW demand!

As I wrote back in May…

3) If the government stops from its current undertaking, it will severely slow the GDP, prompt for a fall in tax revenues which should spike deficit as well. Credit risk will surface and subsequently impact the banking system. Markets will demand more collateral or increases in credit risk premium (higher yields!). 


What Happened to BSP’s Inflation Targeting Policy? The National Government’s Low Margin of Safety

But who shaped the “low-interest rate environment greatly encouraged the search for yield”?

Or, who has been responsible for the massive buildup of excess demand or consumption which had incited by the “low-interest rate environment” that has destabilized the supply chain to force up street prices?

In contrast to popular thinking, demand doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Hasn’t the surge in street prices been a symptom of immense malinvestments?

In particular, have there not been massive overinvestments in the bubble segments (real estate, shopping mallsand hotels) of the economy, which concomitantly emerged with substantial underinvestments in the consumer goods industry, specifically, the agriculture industry?

Or has the bubble economy not crowded out the agricultural economy?

Haven’t resources and labor from the agriculture industry been drawn away to build, build and build and other political boondoggles which led to reduced output of the former?

Or has the centrally planned economy not crowded out the agricultural economy?

So haven’t price dislocations been a symptom of supply chain disruptions brought about by expanded demand from the low-interest rate regime fostered by the BSP?

The principal channel from which the BSP executes its inflation targeting policy is interest rates. 

The BSP joined the crowd of global central bankers to artificially lower rates to ward off the untoward effects of the Great Recession. But instead of using these for emergency purposes, the BSP became addicted to its balming (boom) phase and doubled down on it.

And not only has the BSP engaged in tampering with the interest rate but likewise have deployed another emergency tool: money printing.

The consensus worshipped as a sound model, the artificial incipient beneficial effects of monetary emergency tools.

The BSP had been mesmerized by the benefits, but ignored the cost. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

The gravity of misperception has spilled over to the political sphere.

The leadership, who saw a centrally planned political economy as an ideal governance template, was ushered in. In wanting to take advantage of the free money sponsored boom to execute his dream society, the regime transformed another emergency tool into a developmental model.

Deficit spending mainly on infrastructure, used in 2009 as a shield against the Great Recession (Economic Resilience Plan in 2009), essentially became a primary vehicle to divert resources in pursuit of the shift to a neo-socialist state.  

Now the unforeseen consequence from the toxic combination of stretching and converting emergency tools policy into economic growth engines has emerged.

The $64 trillion question: with monetary and fiscal emergency tools still in place, what will be left for the government and the BSP to use once “dislocations of crisis proportions have come as a surprise” becomes “evidence of a looming crisis”????

Since the government and the BSP have stretched themselves thin, they are in effect operating with a very low margin of safety making the economy susceptible to a 'black swan'.

BSP in Panic: Drastically Hikes Policy Rates in the Face of Plunging M3 Growth!

Reactive rather than preemptive signifies the BSP’s “aggressive” and drastic interest response. 

And it seems a reaction out of fear.
Figure 2

The BSP has been compelled to react to the massive selloff in domestic Treasury securities as seen in the spikes in yields.

Yields of domestic Treasuries have been rocketing across the curve! (figure 2, upper window)

With the surge in the cost of credit, demand for it should slow. 

Consumer loans have already been tumbling fast! August consumer loan growth clocked in at 15.8%, significantly lower from July’s 16.85% and June’s 17.75%. Salary loans contracted for the second month. Production loans growth retreated to 19.11% in August slightly down from 19.74% in July and 19.18% in June. Total bank loans growth in August dropped to 18.83% from July’s 19.49% and June’s 19.06% (figure 2, lower window)

And combined with narrowing interest margins, cash-starved banks will see more liquidity drought from a considerable decrease in loan volumes.

And surging rates would be detrimental to the highly fragile banking system.
 
Figure 3

Through the issuance of various loans, cash-starved banks, in heightened competition with the National Government, have been draining liquidity away from the financial system.

And it is striking to see money supply dropped to 2015 levels!

The BSP reported M3 growth at 10.4% in August down from 10.98% in July. The downdraft in the growth rate of the banking system’s peso deposits and cash and due banks has resonated with M3.

And yes, the BSP just raised rates against such a backdrop! 

And the buck doesn’t stop at interest rates.

BSP in Panic: Slashes Deficit Monetization in August! Build, Build, Build Prices Fall!

Having been so spooked morbidly by inflation, the BSP resorted to an eye-popping cutback of direct financing to the National Government!

From the BSP, “Net claims on the central government also rose at a slower pace of 8.7 percent in August from 12.3 percent in July on account of higher deposits of the National Government with the BSP”.

On a month to month basis, the BSP slashed its holdings of National Government arrears by Php 74.05, the largest since April 2017! (figure 3, middle window)

So the two critical sources of financing demand, bank credit and debt monetization will be drastically chopped so as to meet the government’s agenda on the CPI! 

And curiously, despite the slump in domestic liquidity, the BSP sees September CPI in the range of 6.3% to 7.1% which may settle at 6.8%. On the other hand, the Department of Finance expects September CPI at 6.4%

Since the BSP’s net claims on the national government and or money supply growth lead the CPI with a time lag, current declines should extrapolate to a pullback in street and statistical inflation soon.

The government’s other numbers have already been showing this!
 
Figure 4
The grand “build, build and build” projects are, what I discern, as the epicenter of street inflation.  Money from this politicized sector spreads or ripples across the economy to affect general price levels.

And that pullback by the BSP on the direct financing of the NG has also appeared in construction material wholesale prices in August (+7.86%) to possibly reinforce its rollover since its zenith in June (+8.79%).  (Figure 4, upper window)

Construction retail prices have dropped by even more. Following a peak in May (+2.61%), August prices registered a 2.05% sharply down from 2.54% in July. That’s a 19% plunge! (Figure 4, upper window)

Demand from the government, which sizably spiked wholesale construction material prices, have percolated or spilled over to retail or private sector construction prices. The wide gap between wholesale and retail prices underscores the "crowding out effect" of government projects. Hence, with “build, build and build” slowing down, the downturn in retail prices have only been magnified.

General wholesale prices have also shown a possible inflection point. In July, wholesale price inflation was marginally down at 8.97% from 9.8% in June. With M3 even lower in August, growth in wholesale prices may have also turned down more. (Figure 4, lower window)

The effects of the BSP’s drastic hikes in interest rates (in August and September for a total of 100 bps) and NG financing (in August) have yet to appear!

That’s how desperate the BSP is! They have lost control!

And it wouldn’t be a surprise if the outcome would be a 2015 template or worse (most likely outcome).

In 2015, in response to the elevation of the CPI brought about by 10 consecutive months of 30% money supply growth, the BSP raised policy rates twice then.

Real and nominal GDP fell, earnings declined, shopping mall vacancies appeared and disinflation became a chief concern of the ex-BSP governor.  The banking system was at the risk of 'disinflation' which the BSP responded with the nuclear option!

Will the BSP’s dramatic tightening strangulate the economy that would result in a shock?

National Government Used External Debt to Finance Record Deficit, Peso Will Rally Temporarily on the BSP’s Dramatic Tightening

And there’s more.

Because the BSP withdrew from financing the government’s record fiscal deficit in August (Php 74.05 billion month on month), and because the Bureau of Treasury also saw a decline in domestic debt (Php 27.6 billion month on month), the National Government utilized external sources to finance the month’s narrow deficit.
Figure 5

FX liabilities grew Php 87.9 billion (month on month) and 11.01% or Php 251 billion (year on year.) The NG was reported to have raised about Php 74.4 billion worth in yen-denominated Samurai bonds. (Figure 5, upper window)

The substitution from domestic to external financing was designed to limit the siphoning liquidity in a rapidly tightening environment.

See? More signs of having lost control of the situation!

And such represents more signs of the entrenchment of US dollar shorts. 

Meanwhile, total Public Debt reached a record Php 7.104 trillion last August, 10.45% up from a year ago!

And with higher debt levels and rising rates, the NG’s eight-month debt servicing, which reached Php 582 billion in August (30.48% of revenues), has now surpassed the annual debt service levels of the last 5 years. (Figure 5, lower window)

At the current pace, debt service may hit a fresh record at the year’s close (estimated Php 873 billion).

I have shown here how domestic financial conditions have tightened and will get tighter, as the banking system and national government are in a frantic race to secure resources. That would be aside from the coming stagflation (elevated inflation and economic stagnation).

And with interest rates also rising abroad, access to free money is drying up.

Surging rates have only been amplifying the FSCC’s 3Rs repricing, refinancing and repayment risks (3Rs) which could bring about the Minsky Moment soon.

With bank led M3 down significantly and with the BSP retreating from deficit monetization, I expect the peso to mount a modest rally.  

But it is a rally which wouldn’t last, because of capital flight and because of the BSP’s path dependency for credit expansion or money printing which will be resorted to again.

And for the same demand withdrawal factors, CPI should also fall significantly.

For a system heavily dependent on credit for demand, not only will its retrenchment choke the economy; it may also incite considerable social tensions.   

Attachments area

Friday, September 28, 2018

PhiSYx Rescued by the Largest Mark-the-Close Pump Ever! BSP Hikes Rates by 50 bps to 2012 Levels


The PhiSYx registered its largest-ever mark-the-close ‘rescue’ pump today, September 27, 2018

But first this.

On August 13, 2014, in a speech before the Bloomberg Foreign Exchange Forum, the erstwhile BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. warned against chasing the market: (bold added)

It is a fundamental truth - in everything we face, there are two circles of concern that confront us: 1) those concerns that are within your control, and 2) those outside of your control. Quite often, the latter circle is larger than the former. As market practitioners, you need to be mindful of these two circles. What can you control? Certainly your risk appetite. Controlling this when greed gets the better of you is very difficult. So in a period of low volatility such as what we have been experiencing, practice the discipline of setting limits.

This discipline will not only help you to avoid the pitfalls of "chasing the market". More importantly, this discipline will help you take advantage of the obvious opportunities, as well as unearth those that are hidden. Discipline set during the sober low volatility period will guide you when you are confronted with factors that are not within your control, especially during a frenzied high volatility period.

The headline index closed at 6,986.24

A month later or on September 23, 2014, in a speech before the ACI Phils-FMAP-IHAP-MART-TOAP Joint General Assembly, Mr. Tetangco repeated his warning:

To help manage the financial stability risks of the over-all low interest rate environment. While we have not seen broad-based asset mis-valuations, the BSP remains cognizant that keeping rates low for too long could result in mis-appreciation of risks in certain segments of the market, including the real estate sector and the stock market as markets search for yield. So far, coupled with changes in reportorial requirements and macroprudential measures, the monetary policy actions appear to have achieved some success in moderating the buildup of "irrational exuberance" in certain market segments.;

The PhiSYx was traded last at 7,271.64.

The BSP chief admonished the public when the national benchmark was testing the May 2013 high of 7,392.2.

It was also during the late 3Q of 2014 were the massive mark-the-close pumping began.

Special interest groups ignored the cautionary guidance from the BSP chief.

Helped by the frequent use of such intensified pumps, the benchmark was “forced” to hit a milestone of 9,058.62 on January 29, 2018

Echoing Mr. Tetangco on the stock market in 2014 was the recent Financial Stability Report published by Financial Stability Coordinating Council (FSCC) 

Stock market price-to-earnings ratios, on the other hand, have been persistently well past their textbook warning thresholds but there seems no evidence that investors believe the stock market to be overvalued. Whether this is a Minsky moment waiting to happen is certainly an important thought but the absence of clear-cut valuation measures for the market as a whole leaves the issue without an empirical resolution. (P.46)

The FSCC is chaired by the incumbent BSP Nestor Espenilla Jr.

The PhiSYx is presently at the level where Mr. Tetangco began his irrational exuberance spiel.

And by attributing the Minsky cycle, the FSR implies that the PhiSYx is an accident waiting to happen, once sentiment changes.

Why shouldn’t it be?

 
Today’s 1.16% mark-the-close should hold the crown as the largest since such operations began in the 3Q of 2014! And the two-day rescue pumps (totaling 1.96%) would also account for a record!

As noted before, six issues have skewed the distribution of the market cap weights of the headline index. Today’s actions only reinforced this. The biggest beneficiaries have once again been the SY group of companies. Also favored were two of the Ayala firms

73.94% of SM’s gains today were from mark-the-close! SMPH which was in the red suddenly ended up 1.09% from an end session 1.78% pump!

For issues that closed in the red, 95.03% of MBT's loss was erased suddenly at day's end.  Meralco’s deficit was mitigated by a 78% pump.

End session trades of many of these issues showed the same brokers. Even the sequence of trades had uncannily been similar. Such exude clues to the likely collusion of parties in the rigging of closing prices.

And since there is no free lunch, engineered pumps have brought about in a significant part “Stock market price-to-earnings ratios, on the other hand, have been persistently well past their textbook warning thresholds”, “mis-appreciation of risks” and the pitfalls of "chasing the market".

That’s because prices aren’t being allowed to clear or to reflect on the balance of demand and supply of capital.

Of course, this is interesting because the BSP has just raised interest rates by 50 points today. Policy rates have been raised by 150 bps in four meetings in the past 5 months.

However, the 150 bps hike has reached 2012 levels and still is a low historically

Policy rates remain significantly below the average. Interest Rate, notes the tradingeconomics.com, averaged 7.92 percent from 1985 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 31 percent in January of 1985 and a record low of 3 percent in June of 2016.

So if there should be a mean reversion, interest rates will likely zoom past the average of 7.92%.

And as rates continue to rise, the FSCC’s 3Rs or repricing, refinancing and repayment risks should only escalate:

What is not debatable is that repricing, refinancing and repayment risks (3Rs) are escalated versus last year and this could result in systemic risk if not properly addressed in a timely manner (p.22)

Policy rates were raised by the BSP not just to appease the market, but because it uses the nuclear option to provide liquidity to the system

Besides, from the perspective of the consensus, with policy rates still below the GDP, the easy money environs remain.

However, in witnessing the fall in bank assets and money supply, money must be getting tighter. And this seems to have begun affecting some of the government’s reports on prices and even BIR’s revenues

Later today, the BSP will publish August’s banking loans and domestic liquidity.

The rigged market is about to meet Minsky.


Attachments area

Monday, September 24, 2018

Will Holiday OFW remittances Boost the Philippine Peso? Forecasting the Fall of the Peso

Will Holiday OFW remittances Boost the Philippine Peso? Forecasting the Fall of the Peso

With the peso falling to a 13-year low, there have been attempts by the establishment to paint the peso in a positive light.

The peso, they assert, should benefit from the expected deluge of OFW remittances in the coming holidays.   
 
But what does empirical evidence reveal?

The turnaround of the USD-Php begun in 2013 when the domestic money supply growth soared by over 30% for 10 straight months.

From 2013 to 2017, in three out of the five years or in 60% of the time, the USD-Php has gained in the 4Q irrespective of the performance of the 4Q OFW personal remittances.

For instance, 4Q personal remittances boomed in 2013 (averaging 8.3% a month), yet the USD Php surged (+2.5%).

Last year, the USD Php fell (-2.25%) in the face of a remittance growth rate (averaging 5.2% per month) which was lower significantly than the growth rates of the pre-2013 years.

When OFW remittances registered their lowest growth rate in 2015 (averaging 4.07% a month), the USD-Php climbed by only .51%.

And a boom in OFW remittances hasn’t been in the cards.  4Q remittance growth rates have underperformed significantly its pre-2013 levels in 3 straight years

 
And general remittance trends have in a downtrend since 2014 as the USD peso soared.

Along with 2016, the 7-month growth trend for both personal and cash remittances have been the lowest since 2016.

The lesson is: USD Php price changes and 4Q OFW performance barely has any established statistical correlations. 

And the assumptions to arrive at such conclusions have been utterly misguided.

The focus on remittances assumes the price of USD-Php determined solely by USD flows or by USD supplies. But exchange rates are defined as a price of a nation’s currency in terms of another currency. Or, exchange rates operate in a pair.

From this perspective, whatever happened to the supply of the peso? Are changes in the supply of the peso neutral or irrelevant to the price of the USD-Php?

And what of the role of demand for the USD vis-à-vis the peso and vice versa?

Incidentally, London based Capital Economics predicted that the USD-Php would hit Php 58 at the close of 2019 due to the widening of the trade gap and elevated consumer price inflation.

Totally unfounded” asserted a government official who ironically hasn’t seen the inflation rates explode and the peso wilt.

I offer an improvement to the forecast of Capital Economics.

For as long as the BSP keeps printing money, the Peso will fall.

The BSP will keep printing money to finance the grand political spending boondoggles, to prop up fiscal conditions, the welfare, and warfare state, the bubble economy and to rescue the banking system.

The pace of the downfall of the peso will depend on many factors, such as the rate of money printing, street inflation, BSP’s currency interventions, fx borrowings by the government, economic performance and etc.

There will be another factor which had been eluded by the consensus: capital flight. Once it has been recognized money printing has become a deeply embedded political imperative, capital flight should accelerate

For now…

The first rule of the Inflation Club is: You do not talk about the BSP’s contribution. The second rule of the Inflation Club is: Remember the First rule.
 
From a technical perspective, once the 2004 high of the USD-Php 56.45 breaks, the upside momentum of the USD should only accelerate.

For a chart reader, the breadth of the lows and the breakout point would be proportionate to the uptrend until its peak. Unfortunately, I am a not a chart reader.

Nevertheless, this wisdom from Ludwig von Mises should serve as my guide….

If the practice persists of covering government deficits with the issue of notes, then the day will come without fail, sooner or later, when the monetary systems of those nations pursuing this course will break down completely. The purchasing power of the monetary unit will decline more and more, until finally it disappears completely. To be sure, one could conceive of the possibility that the process of monetary depreciation could go on forever. The purchasing power of the monetary unit could become increasingly smaller without ever disappearing entirely. Prices would then rise more and more. It would still continue to be possible to exchange notes for commodities. Finally, the situation would reach such a state that people would be operating with billions and trillions and then even higher sums for small transactions. The monetary system would still continue to function. However, this prospect scarcely resembles reality (p.60)

While I don’t see hyperinflation as an imminent and inevitable risk, the path towards it has been rolling forward. It will take political will to stop this political addiction to free money.

Will it take a recession or a crisis for this to happen?

This means that I see USD Php 60 as a very conservative target.

Stay tuned.