NOMURA said that he is predicting that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas still can 'very much afford to be patient' as far as holding the country's interest rates is concerned.

No less than Nomura Chief ASEAN Economist Euben Paracuelles made the narration as he argued that this is due to the fact that he sees the Philippine economy staying resilient this year.

"Growth last year was below 6 [percent] but actually from (the fourth quarter), if you look beyond the headline, there’s some resilience to domestic demand, particularly private consumption--which I thought earlier that because of high inflation, high interest rates, sentiment’s gonna be weak, it’s gonna hold back household spending," he said.

"But that wasn’t really the case," he added.

In the same breath, Paracuelles noted that based on the upgraded 2024 full-year economic growth, he forecasts it to be at 6 percent, from his initial 5.8 percent estimate and also faster than the actual 5.6 percent gross domestic product growth in 2023.

"I think for the next several months they will be on hold," Paracuelles said of the BSP.

He also said that he expects an inflation uptick in the second quarter due to base effects.

"If that’s the case in the very near term I think it’s very difficult to see BSP starting to sound more dovish and signal a rate cut so I still have them cutting only in August," he said.