President Marcos said that his administration will work on strengthening the country's agriculture programs and focus on measures that would keep basic needs affordable this 2024.

Marcos said this as he welcomed reports that the inflation rate dropped to 3.9 percent in December 2023.

This figure is the lowest in the previous year, and lower compared to the 4.1 percent recorded in November 2023. It also brings the full-year average inflation rate to 6.0 percent.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Jan. 5, the President said his administration will continue improving the economy.

"Patuloy ang pagsusumikap ng pamahalaan para pagandahin ang kalagayan ng ating ekonomiya (The government will continue to strive to improve the state of our economy)," he wrote.

With this, Marcos vowed to work on keeping basic commodities affordable for consumers and boosting agricultural programs.

"Para sa bagong taon, lalo nating palalakasin ang mga programa para sa agrikultura, at tututukan ang mga hakbang upang mapanatiling abot-kaya ang presyo ng pagkain at iba pang pangunahing bilihin (For the new year, we will strengthen our agricultural programs, and focus on measures to keep the prices of food and other basic needs affordable)," he said.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the government continues to monitor prices and inflation risks as it implements measures to protect the purchasing power of Filipino households.

It added that inflation for most commodity groups either slowed down or retained their previous rates during the month.

However, rice inflation rose to 19.6 percent in December from 15.8 percent in November 2023. It was also the most significant contributor to December 2023’s inflation with 1.7 percentage points (ppt), followed by food and beverages services and housing rentals with 0.5 ppt each.