The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is expected to keep the benchmark interest rates steady in its next meetings as inflation continues to hover above the target range.
“The governor has given forward guidance that we would like to see inflation go back at least to within [the] target before any change in the monetary policy stance is contemplated,” BSP Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila Jr. said during the Philippine Economic Briefing in Dubai.
The BSP kept the policy rate unchanged in the last three meetings. Latest data showed that inflation in August rose to a two-month high of 5.3 percent from 4.7 percent in July on faster increases in the prices of food and agricultural products.
Dakila said there was a need to safeguard inflation expectations. “Expectations coming from our survey respondents indicate that inflation would go back to within target starting next year,” he said.
Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp. head of equities and global funds Michael Adrian Vergara said the BSP tended to move in line with the Fed. “It is really a matter of them managing the peso. It is a matter of them managing liquidity within our market. So if we think that the Fed would potentially cut, I think consensus is looking at the middle of next year,” Vergara said.