BSP says it’s ready for any move by US Fed

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas remains mindful of the timing of a possible reversal of monetary policies in the United States that could impact emerging markets like the Philippines, despite the “dovish” tone taken by Federal Reserve officials this week.

The US Fed Thursday announced that it would maintain its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program until the world’s largest economy gets the legs to stand on its own.

However, the Fed was “dovish”, giving little clues on the timing of when it could taper down its bond-buying program except to say that it would continue to track data that could point to signs of a stronger economic recovery in the United States.

In a statement, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said Philippine policymakers would be ready to make adjustments of its own to adapt to possible effects of the next Fed’s move, whenever it may come.

“(The Fed’s) reaffirmation of its accommodative policy and reiteration of data dependency of its more specific actions in the interim are not expected to significantly impact domestic markets in the immediate term,” Tetangco said.

“Our domestic financial markets will likely take more cues from domestic economic news.”

Earlier this week, Tetangco said the BSP would likely maintain monetary settings that are accommodative of economic growth until the end of 2014.