Philippine central bank expects inflation to stay within target over policy horizon

[MANILA] The latest inflation data support the Philippine central bank's view that consumer prices will stay within its comfort range over the policy horizon, its governor said on Thursday.

The consumer price index climbed 2.4 per cent in January from a year earlier, its slowest rise since August 2013, but slightly faster than the 2.3 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll.

The central bank has a 2-4 per cent inflation target in 2015-2018. Inflation averaged 4.1 per cent in 2014. "We will continue to monitor developments particularly in international oil prices and their impact on financial market volatility and inflation expectations to see if there is a need to make adjustments to our policy levers," Governor Amando Tetangco told reporters in a mobile text message.

The central bank meets for the first time this year on Feb 12 and is widely expected to keep both the key policy rate and the special deposit account rate at 4.0 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively.

REUTERS