Slight rise in inflation not a cause of concern, Palace says
PCO Undersecretary Claire Castro
Malacañang said the government is not alarmed by the recent uptick in inflation as it remains well within the administration's projection this year.
Palace Press Officer and Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said this was according to the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Secretary Frederick Go.
"[A]ccording to Secretary Go and Secretary Balisacan, ito pong 1.7 percent ay hindi po ito nakakapagpabagabag sa gobyerno dahil ang pinaka-projected bond ay two to four percent this year, at malayo pa po ito. At nakikita po nila na slow po ang pagtaas po ng inflation rate (this 1.7 percent is not a cause for concern for the government because the projected range for this year is 2 to 4 percent, which is still far from it)," Castro said in a Palace briefing on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
"At nakikita po nila na slow po ang pagtaas po ng inflation rate (They also see that the increase in the inflation rate is slow," she added.
Citing Balisacan, Castro said the rise was mainly due to higher vegetable prices caused by the recent typhoons hitting the country.
"At ang naging cause daw po nito ay ang pag-increase ng presyo ng gulay dahil sa tuluy-tuloy at sunud-sunod na bagyo po na siyang nag-land dito sa ating bansa at nakaapekto po ito (They said the cause of this was the increase in vegetable prices due to the continuous and successive typhoons that hit the country and affected supply),” Castro said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported the uptick in the domestic rate of price increases in September to 1.7 percent from the previous month’s 1.5 percent, partly due to the impact of weather disturbances.