Philippines Flags More Rate Hikes as War Upends Inflation Fight

The Philippine central bank increased its benchmark interest rate and signaled it was ready to deliver more hikes, with the Iran war likely to spur inflation beyond the official target through next year.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas raised its target reverse repurchase rate by a quarter of a point to 4.5% on Thursday, as predicted by 15 of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The rest expected no change.