Philippine central bank chief signals possible interest rate cut in Q1

The bank lowered rates by 75 basis points last year.

Bloomberg reports that Governor Benjamin Diokno of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that they may ease its key interest rate with a 25-basis point cut within the first three months of the year.

The bank lowered rates by 75 basis points in 2019 after raising them by 175 basis points the year before, with Diokno noting that 100 basis points of those 2018 hikes have yet to be reversed.

“We don’t want that our real interest rate is going to be much higher than the rest of the world,” Diokno told journalists in Manila. “We don’t like hot money.”

Consumer prices rose 2.5% in December from a year earlier, compared to November’s 1.3% rise.

Here’s more from Bloomberg.