BSP says further policy easing possible in February meeting

DUMAGUETE CITY — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Eli Remolona Jr. on Sunday hinted at the possibility of a sixth straight rate cut during the Monetary Board’s policy meeting later this month, following the weaker-than-expected economic growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“Pwede [It can be],” he said when asked if another policy rate cut could come during the Monetary Board meeting scheduled on February 19, the first for the year. “One meeting at a time.”

Should rates be cut anew, this will be the sixth straight cut of the Monetary Board after it decided to cut policy rates by 25 basis points each in April, June, August, October, and December 2025.

According to Remolona, the central bank is now looking into the Philippines’ latest economic growth figures and assessing whether the issues are on the demand side, which it can help address, or on the supply side.

“Our tools operate on the demand side. Our tools don’t do anything on the supply side, so we have to analyze things very, very carefully,” he told reporters in a media information session.

“If we can help on the demand side and still keep inflation low, then of course we’ll help. Of course we’ll help, but it takes a lot of analysis,” he added.

This comes as the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025, the weakest quarterly performance since the 3.8% contraction recorded in the first quarter of 2021 when lockdowns were still in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This brought the full-year 2025 growth to 4.4%, lower than the administration’s already downgraded goal of 5.5% to 6.5%, marking the third straight year that the country has fallen short of achieving its target.

“We expected growth to recover by the second half of 2026. We’re looking to revise that. I hope not downwards. Ina-analyze pa namin ‘yung Q4 bakit mali ‘yung ano namin, ‘yung Q4 [We are still analyzing Q4, why we were wrong for Q4],” Remolona said.

The Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) expects the central bank to cut rates by 50 basis points this year, while the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (HSBC) said a 25-basis-point cut is likely in the February meeting, and could possibly cut further should the Fed decide to do so. — BM, GMA Integrated News