The Department of Finance (DOF) said the country’s inflation remains manageable despite supply issues arising from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
“This allows significant elbow room for policymakers to sustain economic policies supportive to growth,” the DOF said in its latest economic bulletin released yesterday.
Inflation moderately increased to 2.5 percent year-on-year in June, up from 2.1 percent in May, but less than the 2.7 percent logged in the same month of last year.
This inflation outturn brings the year-to-date inflation to 2.5 percent.
Karl Kendrick Chua, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) acting secretary, said in an earlier statement the moderate increase in inflation will help in the recovery of consumer demand as the economy gradually reopens.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the daily lives of Filipinos, NEDA said the government needs to ensure that commodity prices remain low and stable to preserve the purchasing power of Filipino consumers especially those in the bottom 30 percent income households.
This will help build-up consumer confidence and support the gradual opening and recovery of the domestic economy, it added.
“Although inflation is expected to remain within the target range of two to four percent this year, we need to closely monitor possible upside risks to inflation as select economic activities are now resuming, although at reduced capacities. This is to comply with guidelines and protocols set to contain the spread of COVID-19,” Chua said.
““It is also essential to increase the utilization of high-yielding and early maturing varieties of crops and adopt disaster-resilient farm technologies and practices in order to ensure stable food supply and prices in the months ahead,” he added.
