Philippine Central Bank Head Says ‘Too Early’ For Rate Pause
- Inflation seen by central bank to cool to 7.4%-8.2% this month
- Rate hikes have yet to hurt economic growth, governor says
Felipe Medalla
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It may be too soon for the Philippine central bank to pause from raising interest rates at its next policy meeting in May, Governor Felipe Medalla said, signaling its most aggressive tightening cycle in two decades could continue.
May is “too early” to pause, “unless we actually see a price fall,” Medalla said in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum in Bali, Indonesia. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects headline inflation this month to cool to a range of 7.4%-8.2% when the statistics agency reports the data on April 5, it said in a monthly forecast on Friday.