Singapore-based bank expects BSP to retain monetary stance

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines). Wikipedia photo

MANILA, Philippines – DBS Bank expects the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinasn (BSP) to leave policy settings unchanged.

“The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is likely to maintain its monetary policy stance this week… At this juncture, we reckon that the central bank is quite comfortable with the current GDP (gross domestic product) growth and CPI (consumer price index) inflation dynamics,” The Singapore based financial institution said on Thursday, in its research note.

DBS noted that the country’s healthy economic growth – up to 6.9 percent in the last quarter of 2014 compared with 5.3 percent of the previous quarter – indicates that the BSP need not worry about domestic consumption.

“Private consumption remains resilient and there is no reason why the BSP should be worried on this front,” DBS said.

“Indeed, we remain of the view that the central bank may actually prefer to tighten its policy further in the coming sessions,” it added.