MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Tuesday that the country’s inflation continued to climb to 6.1 percent in June, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said, “We are not that high.”
“I think that I will have to… I will have to disagree with that number. We are not that high. We have crossed the .. our targets were less 4 percent or less. Unfortunately, it looks like we may cross that… cross that threshold. Tatawid tayo sa 4 percent.”
PRESIDENT FERDINAND “BONGBONG” MARCOS JR.
Marcos Jr. also stated in his first briefing after taking office that much of the country’s inflation was “imported,” and it’s “a problem not only in the Philippines but everywhere.”
“The increase in commodity prices are… again something that happens, that the forces that have pushed the commodity prices up are again beyond our control,” Marcos said.
“Much of our inflation is actually imported inflation. It is imported because it is the inflation on the products that have suffered inflation that we import. So sumama na yung inflation nila dun sa atin,” he added,
The President has likewise said that there was little the country could do about rising commodity prices.
According to National Statistician Dennis Mapa, the main contributors to inflation were rising prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, transport costs, and fuel prices. He added that the prices would likely grow based on their gathered data.
The Transportation costs increased from 14.6 percent in May 2022 to 17.1 percent in June, while the raw food items also rose dramatically, like fruits and nuts, which ballooned to 1.1 percent compared to May 2022’s -2.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Prof. Emmanuel Leyco, the President of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, has reacted to Marcos’ disagreement with the data, he asserted that the PSA is the most authoritative source, and the surveys and studies conducted by the PSA are used not only by the academe but also by the business community.
“It’s a government agency, and I don’t have any reason not to believe them. They’re very good with what they’re doing. They’re doing the surveys. They’re watching the numbers.”
Prof. Emmanuel Leyco via One News
The 6.1% PH inflation was the fastest rate that prices grew since 2018 when inflation shot up to near-decade highs amid a rice shortage and currency slump.