Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has yet to decide on the country’s next central bank chief, the finance secretary said on Friday, with just over three weeks left before Governor Felipe M. Medalla’s term ends.
Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who was Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor from March 2019 to June 2022, told reporters he has no interest in going back to the central bank.
He said the decision on who becomes governor was not his to make.
Mr. Medalla, 73, an economist and educator who has an economics doctorate from the United States, was appointed governor in July last year and has served under four Philippine presidents since the 1990s.
He was economic planning minister from 1998 to 2001.
He has steered the BSP during its series of rate hikes to battle elevated inflation. His term ends on July 3. — Reuters