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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Bank Indonesia (BI), the country's central bank, may hike the key interest rate in coming months if consumer inflation stays high, BI senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom said Monday.

Last Thursday the central bank kept its key rate, called the BI rate, unchanged at 8.0 percent for the fourth straight month, as widely expected.

Analysts said pressure has been mounting for a rate hike, possibly as early as May, after inflation rose faster than expected in March.

Goeltom said the interest rate outlook for the medium-term will depend on the latest economic data available when the central bank holds its next policy meetings.

"If the inflationary pressures remain high, then of course our monetary policy will have to respond to it," she was quoted by Thomson Financial as saying.

The last time the central bank raised interest rates was in December 2005, when it hiked the BI rate by 50 basis points to its peak of 12.75 percent.

The central bank began reducing the rate in May 2006 and by the end of last year, it had slashed the key rate by 475 basis points. (*)

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