Agricultural Credit and Banking in the Philippines: Efficiency and Access Issues

Credit is important because economic agents in the agriculture sector who are constrained by liquidity problems may produce sub-optimal outputs. This paper reviews the past and present Philippine agricultural credit and banking policies. It identifies the principal issues in rural credit markets and discusses the present status of agricultural finance and the government’s role in rural credit markets. It also suggests certain courses of action to improve both efficiency and access issues in rural financial markets.