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SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Wednesday welcomed the huge slowdown – for the fifth straight month of 2023 – of headline inflation nationwide, which had been pegged at 5.4% by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“This continued drop in inflation can be attributed to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr.’s strong political will and the administration’s sound economic policies. From a high of 8.7% at the start of the year, inflation had been tamed to 6.1% in May, and dropped again in June at 5.4%,” Romualdez said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had earlier projected that headline inflation is projected to slow down again in June. The headline inflation of 5.4% in June is the lowest in a span of 13 months.
“President Marcos Jr.’s carefully crafted spending plan in the 2023 national budget, his many investment tours during his term that inspire investor confidence, and his focused programs and actions against high prices of goods all contributed to this drop in inflation rate,”Romualdez said.
“He practically hit the ground running after the inauguration of his presidency last year. We at the House of Representatives also tried to move at his pace, and we were also very productive in our mandate to support the 8-point economic agenda of the President and his Agenda for Prosperity, including his priority legislation,” he added.
The House leader from Leyte said that one of President Marcos’ visions for the 2023 national budget focused on strengthening the purchasing power of Filipinos, and so far it had paid off during the first half of the year.
“Lowering the inflation rate is a necessary offshoot of boosting our people’s purchasing power. And the Marcos administration has achieved that effectively,” Speaker Romualdez expressed.
From an inflation rate of 8.7% in January 2023, it went down to 8.6% in February, 7.6% in March, 6.6% in April and 6.1% in May.
Romualdez also said the House, in the exercise of its oversight functions, exhaustively investigated the issue of the smuggling of onion and other agricultural products that drove the prices of goods too high.
He said that this helped bring down the prices of commodities and ease food inflation.
“We will continue to work on measures to ensure that the prices of goods and basic commodities remain affordable to the Filipino people,” he said.
Romualdez also pointed out that in May, President Marcos signed Executive Order (EO) No. 28 creating the Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO), which promotes and enhances the coordination and action of government agencies in managing inflation.
“We predict that inflation will continue to slow down as we reach the end of 2023, as the programs of the national budget have been implemented to their full extent and the policies of the administration continue to benefit the people,” the House leader said.
