Philippine central bank raises interest rates by 50 bps

MANILA, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The Philippine central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 5.50% on Thursday, in line with its commitment to bring inflation, currently 8%, down to between 2% and 4% next year.

The rate hike, which was the seventh this year, was unanimously expected by 21 analysts in a Reuters poll.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema; Editing by Himani Sarkar)