While millions are reeling from the effects of flooding traumas in Central Luzon and Metro Manila, we have higher interest rates and the record low of the Philippine peso against the US Dollar. This makes these an unwelcome triple whammy. I will try to help us understand what this will mean for many of us who are consumers.

I know that as an oil importing country needing to pay already high prices for imported oil, a peso devaluation is an unwanted development since it forces us to pay more for the already expensive barrel of oil we import.

This can translate to higher prices of gasoline and diesel fuel, and perhaps increased prices of public transport and the cost of transporting food commodities such as rice, eggs and vegetables all a potential dagger at the heart of consumers. Entrepreneurs will need to prepare for higher prices of inputs and other costs. Workers may demand even higher wages.

A weaker peso may also increase the import costs of other commodities as businesses will need to pay more pesos for thensame metric ton of whatever commodity is imported.

As a result, there may be pressure to increase the prices of products and services being provided. The cascade of higher prices will hurt the majority the consumers. Thus, how these increases may take place and the pains they bring will play out in the coming weeks bears our thoughtful attention.

Curiously though, currencies of our neighbors such as Malaysia have appreciated against the dollar, giving them the extra buffer against higher import prices. How and why our currency fell and theirs rose will need to be answered. Read on this here:https://mb.com.ph/2026/08/31/philippine-peso-asias-worst-performing-currencyjapanese-bank

The second whammy comes for businesses as interest rates have been pushed up to five percent by the bangko sentral, a move supposedly aimed at taming inflation. Please read the MB article on this for further reference. (https://mb.com.ph/2026/08/27/bsp-raises-interest-rate-to-5-to-tame-price-risks)

How this matters to us as consumers is how this increases borrowing costs especially for MSMEs that depend on commercial loans to fund working capital requirements. This is the money to buy the materials needed to make the products, provide services, patñy staff salaries and deliver to customers.

The third whammy: Floods in our three largest regional economies

Both of these whammies come at a time when our largest and most affluent regional economies, namely CALBARZON, Central Luzon and the National Capital Region have been devastated by persistent floods owing to the monsoons over a two week period. These economies are where we have the bigfest volumes of spending, somethi g we need to do to generate incomes and growth. Suppressed spending by people may lead to stagnation and reduced incomes for others.

Whether this is the knife edge of the dreaded super El Nino weather phenomenon is debatable, but recovering from the effects on these economies will take time and potentially shave off badly needed growth, as it comes at a time when we need to catch up on anemic growth.

As we enter the ber months, there is a hope that the effects of these whammies will abate and that we can recover, and hopefully adapt to the new realities shaping up from these events.