NEDA, sinigurong tutulungan ang mga consumer ngayong bumilis ang inflation rate

Transcript

00:00 The inflation or price of goods and services increased this August.

00:04 Despite this, the NEDA assured that the government will look after food security and protection for consumers.

00:11 Ryan Leziga in the report. Rise and shine, Ryan.

00:14 It's only a matter of time before Anna Emerlina will pay for the vegetables she bought.

00:22 Because the price is too high, she is breaking the discount to save money every day.

00:28 It still needs to be completed, even if it's expensive.

00:31 How is that?

00:33 Because it's not good if the vegetables are not included.

00:38 If you just buy vegetables for cooking, it really needs vegetables.

00:45 In this market in Old Sorra, Quezon City, the price of some vegetables was almost doubled.

00:51 Like tomatoes, which used to be from 80 to 100 pesos.

00:56 Now, it's reaching 160 pesos per kilo.

00:59 This price is no longer surprising.

01:03 According to the Philippine Statistics Authority,

01:05 vegetables, especially tomatoes, are one of the reasons why the inflation rate increased in August.

01:11 The estimated inflation rate in August was 5.3 percent.

01:15 It's higher than the 4.7 percent that was estimated for July.

01:20 It's now 6.6 percent. The average inflation rate was from January to August this year.

01:28 According to the PSA, the fast price of food and non-alcoholic beverages is the main reason for the fast inflation.

01:36 Particularly, the fast price of rice, vegetables and fish was the reason for the fast inflation.

01:42 Vegetables in particular, we have seen that in the past when we have typhoons, our supply of vegetables is declining.

01:52 We had a temporary shock to the price of vegetables.

01:59 That happened of course last week of July because a large part of our country was flooded, particularly Region 3.

02:10 The second commodity group that contributed to the faster inflation for August is transport.

02:17 The main reason for this is the slow price of gasoline.

02:22 In NCR, the inflation rate also increased by 5.9 percent for August.

02:28 In July, the inflation rate was only 5.6 percent while the 5.7 percent in August 2022.

02:36 In NCR, the main reason for the higher inflation rate in August 2023

02:43 compared to July 2023 is the faster price of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

02:49 It has 8.6 percent inflation and 62.5 percent share in the increase of inflation in NCR.

03:00 The government has also insisted on the steps to ensure food security, protect consumers and provide assistance to farmers.

03:10 The government has insisted that they are still hoping to get the 2 to 4 percent inflation rate by the end of the year.

03:18 The BSP has also insisted on adjusting their monetary policy stance to stop the price of the main commodities.

03:27 The BSP's forecast range also included the inflation rate this month.

03:31 Meanwhile, the Bureau of Plant and Industry explained that one of the reasons for the increase in the price of tomatoes

03:38 is the cutting of the next typhoon.

03:41 But the agency is now focusing on increasing supply including contracting or planting based on the needs of the market or a business.

03:51 We will produce and of course using the technologies that are already here.

03:55 We have industry partners, private sector partners that are already talking to us to directly contract our products.

04:04 So that's our plan, of course.

04:08 If there are still people who are interested in partnering with us, collaborating, we are also there.

04:14 By the way, the post-harvest that we can do like drying, tomato paste, is already in the pipeline.

04:24 Ryan Lizigas for the morning show of the country, Rise and Shine, Philippines.