Philippine Central Bank Governor hints mid-year monetary easing

Benjamin Diokno, the top official of the Philippine’s central bank, bared that he was considering having the next monetary easing via an interest-rate cut “sometime in the middle of the year.”

“With another rate cut yesterday, we still have a   lot of monetary space,” Diokno said.

On   Thursday, the central bank cut its benchmark rate by   25   basis points to 3. 75 %, joining the neighboring countries in rate cut amid the global economic slowdown brought about by the novel coronavirus outbreak that originated in   China.

The easing was implemented a day after Thailand and Singapore lowered their interest rates.

In   2019, Diokno said that he anticipated 50 basis points of rate cuts for this year which he noted after the central bank increased the rates by 175 basis points in 2018 and decreased it the following year by 75   basis points.

“The coronavirus maybe just provided us an opportunity to do it much earlier than later,” Diokno added.