No need to tweak rates yet, regulators say

TAGAYTAY CITY — Monetary authorities see no need to tweak policy rates during their next meeting as the inflation rate last February remained generally stable.

“There’s no compelling reason why we should change our monetary policy stance… It remains appropriate,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo told reporters on Friday.

The Monetary Board last Feb. 12 decided to keep interest rates on hold.

The overnight borrowing and lending rates were maintained at 4 and 6 percent, respectively.

In a business forum last month, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. also said that “if monetary policy is appropriate and if current conditions continue, then we’ll probably be able to maintain the stance of policy for most of 2015.”

Guinigundo noted that the inflation rate in February was barely unchanged at 2.5 percent from 2.4 percent the previous month.

The government on Thursday attributed February’s higher inflation to the rise in utility costs as well as uptick in gasoline prices, which had offset the slower food price hikes.

Guinigundo nonetheless cited that the rate of increase in the prices of goods last month was well within the full-year target of 2-4 percent.

The policy-setting Monetary Board will again meet on Mar. 26.

Tetangco, however, had warned that while current conditions had allowed the BSP to stick with the prevailing rates, “things can change” due to weak growth in developed economies.

“Right now, what I’m looking at is the impact of developments in advanced economies on capital flows and how this will possibly affect liquidity,” Tetangco said last month.