House lawmakers led by Speaker Martin Romualdez welcomed on Friday the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) report that headline inflation rate in the country dropped to 1.8-percent, or the level at which food prices are rising.
In a statement, Romualdez said this development showed that the intervention measures taken by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. were effective, citing in particular “the drastic reduction in tariff on rice imports and the setting of maximum retail prices for rice and other food items.”
“We are happy for our people because slower inflation means less financial burden on their part,” Romualdez said.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said he expected this development. “Inflation continues to slow down as the price pressures present last year on rice and other key commodities are no longer as heated,” he said.
“Year-on-year, the price of rice notably declined by 7.7 percent, a welcome development that was anticipated by the House Murang Pagkain Supercommittee,” noted Salceda, the House resident economist and chair of the House committee on ways and means.
Salceda said he expects the prices of rice to keep declining year-on-year, “before resuming a slightly positive inflation rate midyear.”
“That said, we must remain vigilant about the prices of meat, which is in larger part determined by the price of corn,” he added.
According to the PSA, inflation last month slowed to a six-month low of 1.8 percent, from 2.1 percent in February. In March last year, the rate was 3.7 percent. The agency attributed the lower inflation rate last month to decreasing prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Romualdez said he believes that falling rice prices were the main driver of the decreased inflation level in March.
“We are seeing rice prices dropping gradually due to government intervention measures, principally the decision by the President to reduce tariff on imported rice,” he said. He hoped that inflation would continue to fall or at least stay below two percent.
“As I have stated before, the continuing challenge is for us to keep the increase in food prices down,” the Speaker added.
Romualdez urged the government to prepare for the coming rainy season, which he said usually puts upward pressure on prices. He said the House of Representatives would continue to help the executive branch fight inflation through legislative measures and its exercise of its oversight power.