manila feb 9 reuters  the philippines central bank will not necessarily have to move in pace with the us federal reserve which is expected to tighten monetary policy in march to tackle inflation its governor said on wednesday governor benjamin diokno said the bangko sentral ng pilipinas bsp was in no rush to raise interest rates with the countrys inflation projected to remain inside its 2 to 4 target range this year we will try to be patient to make sure that we are really on our way to recovery diokno told foreign correspondents the fed has signaled it will likely begin to hike interest rates in march and wind down asset purchases to target rising inflation the bsp will meet for the first time this year on feb 17 to set its benchmark interest rate phcbireci which has been kept at a record low of 20 since november 2020 to support economic growth reporting by karen lema and neil jerome morales editing by martin petty