MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, is meeting this week and analysts have predicted that it will keep the policy rates steady.
This week, China has already trimmed its poilcy rate while Indonesia is set to cut rates when officials meet. In South Korea, the central bank is also forecast to keep the rates steady for this month.
The Monetary Board of the BSP will leave the policy rates unchanged when it meets on Thursday, economists said, citing the momentum of the Philippine economy.
Last March, the BSP kept the overnight borrowing and overnight lending rates at 4 percent and 6%, respectively, the fourth time that it kept the rates steady.
In South Korea, a survey conducted by Yonhap Informax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, showed that 12 out of 13 analysts and economists expect South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea (BOK) to keep its benchmark interest rate steady for a second month in May.
The respondents said the central bank is likely to hold the base rate steady at 1.75 percent when it officials meet on Friday, although the survey showed that a rate cut will take place as early as June.
In China, the People’s Bank of China has decided to trim the benchmark loan and deposit interest rates starting 11 May.
The rate cut, the third time since November 2014, means one-year deposit rate will now be 2.25 percent and the one-year lending rate will be at 5.1 percent following the announcement of a 25 basis points cut.
The central bank said the decision to cut interest rate was in line with expectations that China will implement pro-growth monetary measures based on the latest economic figures, which showed China is facing a rocky ride on its reform drive. – BusinessNewsAsia.com