Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Economist-solon Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda says President Marcos ultimately made the right call in enforcing a huge reduction on rice tariffs, since the move is now paying off.

Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, offered this take as he reviewed the finer details of the slight rise in inflation rate in October, which settled at 2.3 percent.

"October’s inflation figure remains at the low end of the 2-4 percent target. The 10-month average also remains at 3.3 percent. I can now confidently say that the full-year inflation figure will be within the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) 2-4 percent target band," he said.

Headline inflation for September was 1.9 percent. 

Salceda acknowledged that inflation on prices of rice--the Filipino staple food--"[remain] a fundamental problem year on year".

"But on a month-on-month basis, prices are declining for all cereals (rice, corn, and wheat products). There are also encouraging signs in meat prices, which have slowed to 3.6 percent inflation [year-on-year] and negative inflation month-on-month," he said.

"All-in-all, President Marcos’s policy of reducing rice tariffs by more than half seems to have produced positive results, while keeping farmgate prices high for farmers," noted Salceda.

He said farmgate prices have increased from an average of P18.72 per kilogram to P24.70 per kilogram this year. 

"That is a 32 percent increase in farmgate prices, whereas well-milled rice prices have only grown by 27.17 percent. The difference (given the local-import mix of our rice sector) seems to have come from the tariff reduction," said the aspiring govenror.

Meanwhile, Salceda said the full impact of India’s lifting of rice export bans in early October will be felt more closely in November. "That will also help blunt spikes in price due to generally higher December demand and the impacts of recent typhoons".

Earlier this year, President Marcos signed Executive Order (EO) No.62, which reduced the tariff on rice from 35 percent to 15 percent. He did it primarily to pull down rice prices.