MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - The Philippines' central bank governor said on Monday he sees further room to ease monetary policy since inflation is on a steady downtrend but that higher oil prices are not a major risk.
"The trend is still downward. We estimate it will hit bottom in the third quarter at around 1 percent," Amando Tetangco told Reuters regarding inflation.
"Oil prices still do not pose a significant risk to inflation."
"We think there is room for further easing of monetary policy," he said.
Some analysts said in a Reuters poll on inflation earlier this month that the central bank may cut rates by another 25 basis points before ending its current easing cycle. [ID:nMAN399245]
A quarter-percentage-point reduction would bring the overnight borrowing rate, the rate at which the central bank pays banks for overnight money, to a record low of 4 percent. ($1= 48.25 pesos) (Reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Karen Lema; Editing by Neil Fullick)