(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines central bank sees no urgency to adjust its policy stance with inflation forecast to ease after peaking in the third quarter, Governor Amando Tetangco said.
Consumer-price growth will reach close to 4 percent this year before slowing, Tetangco said in an interview in Cebu, south of Manila on Tuesday. With “the inflation forecast being within the inflation target, there's really no urgency to make any change in the stance of policy,” he said.
Tetangco's comments signal policy makers may not rush to tighten policy even as economists predict interest rates will rise in the Philippines this year. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held the benchmark rate at a record-low 3 percent in March and lowered inflation forecasts for this year and next.
Consumer prices rose 3.3 percent in February from a year earlier, the fastest pace since November 2014. The central bank's target is for average inflation to stay in a range of 2 percent to 4 percent this year and next.
To contact the reporters on this story: Siegfrid Alegado in Manila at aalegado1@bloomberg.net, Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karl Lester M. Yap
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