The Philippine central bank maintained its key interest rates for the tenth consecutive rate-setting session on Thursday.
The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas decided to keep the overnight borrowing or reverse repurchase facility at 4 percent and the overnight lending or repurchase facility at 6.00 percent.
The bank also left the reserve requirement ratios unchanged.
The bank expects inflation to return gradually to a path consistent with the inflation target for 2016-17. Further, the board expects domestic demand to stay firm underpinned by household and capital spending and adequate liquidity.
Looking ahead, with growth picking up, but inflation set to remain low, the central bank is unlikely to be in any hurry to adjust interest rates, Daniel Martin at Capital Economics, said.
Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate hike since 2006. The Fed sees only “gradual” rate hikes in 2016.
The BSP said keeping policy setting steady at this juncture would allow the bank some room to continue to assess evolving global economic conditions and calibrate its policy tools as appropriate.
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