Sun Life PH sees Bangko Sentral rate hike pause
Monetary authorities could hold off from raising interest rates as early as next month if inflation shows a marked deceleration, a senior Sun Life Financial Philippines official said on Monday.
“We expect the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), after hiking policy rates, to probably stop next year,” Sun Life Chief Investments Officer Michael Enriquez said in a briefing.
“There is a clear case to, in fact, pause in December if inflation would remain to decelerate on a monthly basis,” he added.
The BSP’s policymaking Monetary Board — scheduled to meet for the last time this year on December 13 — has raised key interest rates for five consecutive times so far in 2018, for a total of 175 basis points, after inflation breached the 2.0-4.0 percent target beginning March.
After hitting a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September, consumer price growth stayed steady in October and in fact eased to 0.3 percent month on month.
Enriquez said lower oil prices and measures implemented by the government to curb rice prices likely tempered inflation to 6.3 percent last month.
The Finance department, which has also forecast a 6.3 percent result, on Monday said that month-on-month inflation likely slowed to 0.07 percent.
“This easing in inflationary momentum comes from both the declines in prices of food and non-food commodities,” it said in a statement.
Higher electricity prices in November, meanwhile, should have been offset by continued fuel price rollbacks.
Official inflation data for the month will be announced on Wednesday, December 5.
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