The Philippine central bank will hike interest rates this month, but the monetary board is likely to be divided over whether to raise the policy rate by 25 or 50 basis points, its governor said on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Felipe Medalla expressed relief that the U.S. Federal ReserveFederal Reserve was going to scale back its interest rate hikes. He said the BSP could pause policy tightening by the first quarter of next year, barring no major shocks. Certainly we will not do zero and I cannot speak for the rest of the board. He said that the board members would probably be split between 25 or 50.
Medalla heads the seven-member monetary board, which will review the BSP's interest rate settings on December 15 at its last policy meeting of the year.
Since May, the BSP has increased its benchmark interest rates by 300 basis points.
When asked if he thinks the BSP's key rates will peak in the first half of 2023, Medalla replied: Yes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said it was time to slow the pace of coming rate hikes ahead of the U.S. central bank's Dec. 13 -- 14 meeting, at which a half-point increase is widely expected.