The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) held an off-cycle Monetary Board (MB) meeting on March 26, 2026, and decided to maintain its policy rate at 4.25%.

• According to BSP chief Eli Remolona Jr., the fast-changing and uncertain environment amid ongoing geopolitical conflict warranted an off-cycle meeting.
• Considering global price pressures, the BSP revised its inflation forecast for full year 2026 to 5.1% and for full year 2027 to 3.8%.
• The BSP chief noted that price pressure arises from supply-side shocks, where the “potency of monetary policy remains limited.”
• Remolona also said that delivering a rate hike at this time could be harmful to economic growth. 

• Metrobank maintains its view that full year inflation in 2026 will breach the BSP’s 2%-4% target for the period, in line with the BSP’s latest forecast.
• We also maintain our forecast that the BSP will hike by a cumulative 50 basis points this year, bringing the target RRP to 4.75% by year-end. 
• It may be wise to track opportunities to buy dollars, given the expectations for the dollar-peso spot rate to tick higher. Meanwhile, with the rising inflation expectations, the Philippine yield curve is expected to steepen further.

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