President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday dismissed the country's latest inflation rate, which has increased compared to last month's figure, by saying it is an "imported inflation."
"I think I will have to disagree with that number. We are not that high. We have crossed the...our targets were less four percent or less," Marcos told reporters in a press briefing, in answer to a reporter's claim that local inflation rate was 6 percent.
In a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the rate of increases in prices in the Philippines climbed to a three-year high at 6.1 percent in June.
This was higher than May's 5.4 percent.
Nevertheless, Marcos attributed the price increase in commodities to the increasing value of US dollar, which affects the value of imported goods.
"The dollar has gained against all currencies. And the specific effect is that it actually...will be part of the components of the inflation," he 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 doon sa atin (Then, our inflation follows)," he added.
Admitting that commodity prices are "beyond our control," the President then advised that the government just has "to be careful" as the country's current monetary policy is essentially to use interest rates to hold and to take control of the inflation rate.
"We are not looking specifically to the exchange rates now. What we are talking about, what we are specifically talking—what we are targeting is the inflation rate. So that’s what we are doing," he said.