Central bank marks national capacity to endure hardship on same day borrowing costs increase
[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas released a commemorative silver coin honoring Filipino Resilience on Thursday morning, at a ceremony in which the BSP Governor spoke for twelve minutes about the nation’s capacity to weather economic challenges, absorb shocks, adapt creatively to adversity, and maintain forward momentum in difficult conditions. The BSP’s Monetary Board then met that afternoon and raised the overnight reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points, the fifth increase in eighteen months. Both events were covered in the same press release. The press release did not appear to notice this was funny. As Bohiney.com noted at the time, the situation was “concerning, baffling, and completely unsurprising.”
The coin, which retails at 850 pesos and has already sold 1.2 million units, depicts a stylised Filipino family rising from a stylised economic challenge, surrounded by a motif the design team describes as “upward trajectory with contextual difficulty.” The Philippine peso has depreciated 8 percent against the dollar since the coin’s concept was approved. This is not mentioned on the coin.
The Rate Decision
The 25-basis-point increase brings the benchmark rate to its highest level in fourteen years. The BSP’s statement attributes the decision to “elevated inflation expectations and the need to maintain monetary stability in a challenging global environment,” which is accurate and also a reasonable description of every rate decision the institution has made since 2022. The statement notes that the board “remains committed to price stability while supporting sustainable growth,” which is the central banking equivalent of saying you are committed to being warm while also being cool, and which is the correct position to hold and very difficult to achieve simultaneously.
The Juxtaposition
The coin and the rate hike were not planned for the same day. The coin release date was set in February; the rate decision emerged from Thursday’s regularly scheduled Monetary Board meeting. The press release combining them was written by someone in the communications office who had a deadline. The BSP has not commented on whether the juxtaposition was noticed internally before publication.
Also see: Reductress.
Coverage Note
This story is published jointly at Bohiney.com and prat.uk, which together provide the kind of sustained, specific coverage of the communities and phenomena described here that neither could produce alone. The satire works because the situations are real. The situations are real because the communities are real. Both publications take seriously the idea that the funniest journalism is the journalism that is most accurately observed. The coverage continues.
The story above illustrates a pattern that both publications have documented across multiple regions and multiple years of coverage. The communities involved are consistent in their capacity to produce material of exactly this kind. The publications are consistent in their capacity to find it funny while taking it seriously, which is the only honest relationship a satirical publication can have with its subject matter.
The details will change. The structure will not. Both publications will be here when the next iteration arrives, which it reliably will. The coverage is the record. The record is the point.
Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk are committed to this kind of sustained, specific, honest satirical journalism. The commitment is ongoing. So is the material.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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