Copyreading and Headline Writing Exercise 8 – October 25, 2022

DIRECTION: Edit the article below using copyreading symbols. Provide a headline for the
article. Provide slugline, unit counts and printer’s directions. Do this exercise for at most 30
minutes only.

HEADLINE:

The handover of power from outgoing premier Mario Draghi to Meloni will take place

at Rome’s Chigi Palace and a first Cabinet meeting will follow shortly afterwards.

The symbolic act at the seat of Italy’s government will see former European Central Bank

chief Draghi, in-charge since February 2021, hand over a bell use by the cabinet president to

manage cabinet debates.

ROME, Italy — Giorgia Meloni formally takes over as Italy’s first woman prime minister on

Sunday, a day after being sworn in as the leader of the country’s most right -wing government

since world war II.

European Union chiefs, wary of the far right taking power, on Saturday said they were ready

to cooperate with the new coalision government led by Meloni’s post-facist and Eurosckeptic

Brothers of Italy party.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Meloni and said she

held “good” telephone talks with her, while Meloni said she was ready to work with the block’s

leaders.

La Stampa daily spoke of a “European beginning” on its front page on Sunday. “Meloni:

down to work, with pride”, blared the Corriere della Sera.

DIRECTION: Edit the article below using copyreading symbols. Provide two headlines for the
article. Provide slugline, unit counts and printer’s directions. Do this exercise for at most 60
minutes only.

HEADLINE:

HEADLINE:

Malacañang is not calling the shots on monetary policey, the Department of Finance (DOF)

said as it defended the independance of the Bangko Central ng Pilipinas from politics.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Chel E. Diokno said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will

continue to preserve its independence from the country’s political leadership despite growing

global uncertainty and inflationary pressures.

“I’ve always been transparent: I say what I mean, and mean what I say. The Executive will

respect the independence of the BSP. Such position has served us well in the past, it should serve

us well in the future,” said Diokno, a former central bank Governor.

The finance chief’s statement follows his pronouncement last week that the government

was ready to prevent the peso sliding beyond the 60 to the US dollar threshold.

Diokno added that if he were Central Bank governor, he will be willing to deploy around

$10 billion in the final three-months of the year to support the local currency against the strong

US dollar.
 The DOF chief also suggested that the central bank’s key interest rates should rose by 100

basis points before year-end in conjunction with actions made by the US Federal Reserve.

Diokno’s policy direction, who as President Marcos’ finance chief sits on the BSP’s

monetary board, was preceived by many as an undue pressure on the central bank, an

independent body.

Sought for comment, Diokno explained that transparency has always been his

“management style.”

“That has been my management style in contrast to those who prefer to be deliberately

vague, which then leads to more speculation,” the Finance chief said.

Earlier, President Marcos also gave remarks on monetary policy.

We may have to defend the peso in the coming months, but the overall forecast is that we

are still doing better than other countries in terms of inflation, though economic developments

are still anticipated, President Marcos said via twitter.

So far, the BSP raised key policy rates by 225 basis point this year to combat the skyrocketing

consumer prices and tame the peso’s weakness. The central bank has two more policy meetings

left this year.

Under the Marcos administration’s medium-term macro-economic assumptions, peso-

dollar exchange rate was set at 51 to 53 for 2022 and 51 to 55 from 2023 to 2028.

The peso is currently among worst performing currencies in SouthEast Asia this year after

losing more than 13 percent against the green back.

 Last week, BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said the central bank has enough toolkits to

prevent speculative trading and defend the local currentcy from undue exchange rate

flunctuations.

Medalla also vowed to be more vigourous in monitoring the spot market.

But at this time, he believes the BSP has no need to introduce new and additional foreign

exchange rules to curb speculative activities as the spot market continue to hit the P59-level since

Sept. 30.

“It’s part of what we can do but with more intensity,” Medalla said when asked if the BSP

is seeing an alarming rate of speculative attacks against the peso.

To avoid “extreme” and substantial changes in the exchange rate, the BSP intervenes in

the spot market to strengthen the peso by releasing US dollar liquidity.

The central bank regularly withdraws from the country’s foreign exchange reserves or the gross

international reserves (GIR) to do this.

Since January that year, the GIR has lost $14.69 billion or from $107.69 billion to $93

billion as of end-September.

Medalla reiterated that exchange rate intervention and raising BSP policy rates are two

primary monetary policy measures that they are undertaking to stabilize the peso-US dollar rates.