Philippines maintains key policy rates

The Philippine central bank on Thursday decided to keep policy rates steady as it expects inflation for 2014 to fall within the government's target of 3 to 5 percent. The overnight borrowing or reverse repurchase facility still stands at 3.5 percent while overnight lending or repurchase remains at 5.5 percent. These rates have been unchanged since October 2012. "In deciding to maintain policy rates, the Monetary Board noted that the future inflation path is likely to stay within the target ranges of 3 to 5 percent for 2014 and 2 to 4 percent for 2015," central bank governor Amando Tetangco, Jr. said in a briefing. The local central bank, however, hiked its reserve requirement for banks, possibly signaling the start of tightening the monetary policy. The Monetary Board also cut its average inflation forecast for 2014 to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent announced in Februar Next year, inflation is seen settling at 3.2 percent, slower than the previous projection of 3.3 percent.