{"id":241666,"date":"2020-01-07T21:26:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T02:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=241666"},"modified":"2020-01-07T21:26:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T02:26:20","slug":"dec-2019-inflation-still-within-expectations-bsp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/07\/dec-2019-inflation-still-within-expectations-bsp\/","title":{"rendered":"Dec. 2019 inflation still within expectations: BSP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The BSP said risks to inflation outlook \u201care on the upside\u201d this year \u201cbut titled on the downside\u201d next year. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines\u2019 inflation rate further accelerated in December 2019 to 2.5 percent but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is not worried, saying the level remains within its projection.<\/p>\n

Faster inflation of electricity rates, petroleum products, select food items, and the base effects of the previous year\u2019s elevated rate of price increases pushed inflation higher than last November\u2019s 1.3 percent. December\u2019s figure is within the central bank\u2019s 1.8 percent to 2.6 percent forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest inflation outturn is consistent with the BSP\u2019s prevailing assessment that inflation is expected to approach the midpoint of the target range in 2020 and 2021,\u201d the central bank said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Inflation in 2018 was higher at 5.2 percent while the average rate last year stood at 2.5 percent, within the government\u2019s 2 percent to 4 percent target band.<\/p>\n

The BSP said risks to inflation outlook \u201care on the upside\u201d this year \u201cbut titled on the downside\u201d next year.<\/p>\n

It identified the volatility of global oil prices and the potential impact of the African swine fever as the upside risks for this year\u2019s inflation rate, while the impact of global trade and policy uncertainty, as well as geopolitical issues, are among the downside risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BSP will consider all the latest economic developments here and abroad in the Monetary Board\u2019s assessment to ensure that the monetary policy stance remains consistent with the BSP\u2019s price stability objective while being supportive of economic growth,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ING Manila senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa forecast inflation to increase to the 3 percent level this year as base effects wane.<\/p>\n

\u201cFactoring the reverse base effects, we expect inflation to average 3.2 percent and as high as 3.4 percent should oil prices edge higher due to possible supply-side disruptions,\u201d Mapa said in a report.<\/p>\n

He said the geopolitical issues overseas may add to inflationary pressures this year on top of the volatility in global oil prices and the increase in excise taxes on fuel products starting this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to believe that the BSP will have the scope to ease monetary policy further in 2020 with the first rate cut slated for the February meeting,\u201d he said, adding the local currency \u201cmay enjoy some short-term strength with some market analysts pulling back expectations for a central bank rate cut given the upside surprise to inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Philippine monetary officials slashed the central bank\u2019s key policy rates by a total of 75 basis points but this was not even half of the 175 basis points hike done in the previous year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines\u2019 inflation rate further accelerated in December 2019 to 2.5 percent but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","mauthors-joann-villanueva","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241667,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241666\/revisions\/241667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}