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House Speaker Martin Romualdez has credited the country's continuing inflation rate slowdown to the "strong political will" and "sound economic policies" of the Marcos administration. “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 percent at the start of the year, inflation had been tamed to 6.1 percent in May, and dropped again in June at 5.4 percent,” Romualdez said in a statement Wednesday, July 5. “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,” added the Leyte 1st district congressman. Marcos had just marked his first full year in Malacañang last June 30. “He practically hit the ground running after the inauguration of his presidency last year," Romualdez said of the Chief Executive. "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 said. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had earlier projected that headline inflation would slow down again in June. The headline inflation of 5.4 percent in June is the lowest in a span of 13 months. The House leader said that one of Marcos' visions for the 2023 national budget focused on strengthening the purchasing power of Filipinos. It has so far it had paid off. “Lowering the inflation rate is a necessary offshoot of boosting our people’s purchasing power. And the Marcos administration has achieved that effectively,” noted Romualdez. From 8.7 percent in January 2023, it inflation slowed down to 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March, 6.6 percent in April, and 6.1 percent in May. “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,” Romualdez said. As for the House of Representatives, Romualdez said it "continue to work on measures to ensure that the prices of goods and basic commodities remain affordable to the Filipino people". Earlier this year, the House--in the exercise of its oversight functions--exhaustively investigated the issue of agricultural smuggling, which had caused prices of basic goods such as onions to skyrocket.