To tackle inflation, which remained outside the central bank's 2% to 4% comfort range, the BSP has raised interest rates by a total 425 basis points to 6.25% since May last year. It next meets to review policy on May 18. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty)
MANILA, May 5 (Reuters) - Philippine annual inflation
eased for a third successive month in April, the statistics
agency said on Friday, giving the central bank leeway to pause
its 10-month tightening cycle.
The consumer price index rose 6.6% in April from
a year earlier, below the 7.0% forecast in a Reuters poll and
slower than the 7.6% rate in March.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel
items, slowed slightly to 7.9% from March's 8.0%.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which projected April
inflation at 6.3% to 7.1%, last month said it might pause its
most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in years if inflation slowed
further in April.
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