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<p>By Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema</p>
<p>MANILA (Reuters) -The&nbsp;Philippine&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;opted to deliver a big&nbsp;50-basis point rate&nbsp;hike&nbsp;on Thursday and flagged the likelihood of more rate increases at its next meetings to get a grip on&nbsp;inflation, which soared to a fresh 14-year high last month.</p>
<p>The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) raised its benchmark interest rate by a half-point for a second straight meeting on Thursday to 6.0%, as expected by a slim majority of economists in a Reuters poll.</p>
<p>"An upward adjustment in the policy interest rate would also prevent&nbsp;inflation&nbsp;expectations from drifting further away from the target band," BSP Governor Felipe Medalla told a media briefing after the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank's first rate-setting meeting this year.</p>
<p>The Monetary Board believed a strong follow-through monetary policy response was necessary to reduce the risk of breaching its&nbsp;inflation&nbsp;target of 2%-4% in 2024, he added.</p>
<p>Last month's headline&nbsp;inflation&nbsp;of 8.7%, which blew past expectations, prompted the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;to raise its average&nbsp;inflation&nbsp;forecasts for 2023 and 2024 to 6.1% from 4.5% and to 3.2% from 2.8%, respectively, building the case for more rate&nbsp;hikes this year.</p>
<p>"It is unlikely that we will not increase the rate (at the) next meeting," Medalla said, adding it was difficult to rule out a "third" or "maybe a fourth" rate increase after Thursday's policy action.</p>
<p>The peso firmed 0.3% to 55.12 against the U.S. dollar as of 0811 GMT after the BSP's policy decision and signals.&nbsp;Philippine&nbsp;shares slipped 0.1%, reversing earlier gains.</p>
<p>Thursday's&nbsp;50-bps&nbsp;rise marked the eighth time the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;has raised interest rates since last year to&nbsp;cool&nbsp;red-hot&nbsp;inflation. It next meets on March 23.</p>
<p>Despite further policy tightening, Medalla said, growth this year was expected to remain on solid ground due to pent-up demand. Manila is targeting growth of 6%-7% in 2023, down from 7.6% last year.</p>
<p>Taking the cue from the BSP, Capital Economics said in a note it was now expecting two more 25-bps&nbsp;rate&nbsp;hikes this year and ruled out any rate cuts it had penciled in for later in 2023.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Martin Petty and Sonali Paul)</p>
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Philippine central bank delivers 50 bps hike to cool inflation