Inflation likely to breach BSP’s official projection – economists
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The country’s inflation is expected to balloon further to 5.1 per cent, breaching the Monetary Board’s (MB) 4.5 per cent forecast.
According to private economists polled by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), inflation expectations remained elevated ahead of a decision to hike the policy rate by 50 basis points.
In December, economists forecasted a 5.9-percent result for 2022. This is higher than the official 5.8 per cent forecast.
The economists’ forecasts for 2022 and 2023 were higher than the 5.7 percent and 4.9 percent recorded a month earlier, the report by MB noted, adding that consumers and households also surveyed in the fourth quarter expected inflation to breach the government’s 2.0- to 4.0 percent target for 2022 and 2023.
In December, the MB decided to keep its 2022 inflation forecast at 5.8 percent but raised that for 2023 to 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent. The estimate for 2024 was trimmed to 2.8 percent from 3.1 percent.
