Inflation is top Filipino concern
SPIRALING prices were the top concern of most Filipinos in the last month of a year that saw inflation hit a 14-year high due to surging food costs, according to a poll released by Octa Research on Monday amid expectations of elevated costs of transport and electricity.
The survey of 1,200 adult Filipinos from Dec. 10-14 also showed that the push to amend the country’s 36-year-old Charter does not have popular support.
In the poll, 74% of Filipinos said the government should focus on controlling the increase in the prices of basic goods and services.
Runaway inflation forced global central banks to drive up interest rates to the fastest in decades last year, with the Philippines’ rate hitting a peak of 8.7% year on year in the first month of 2023.
Headline inflation last month declined to 3.9%, but the full-year average for 2023 hit 6.0%, breaching the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 2%-4% target.
Top concern over inflation was seen in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, where 82% of adult Filipinos said inflation was the most pressing issue, surpassing all other major regions.
Higher prices have significantly eroded the purchasing power of households and businesses, Michael M. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
He cited the continuing impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started nearly two years ago, on the global prices of oil and other basic commodities.
“Higher prices/inflation had the greatest adverse effect on the poorest of the poor or those with limited budgets,” Mr. Ricafort said.
Food inflation stood at 10.0% in December, with rice driving the increase as the commodity’s prices increased by 17.9%, the fastest since it hit 22.9% in March 2009.
The fact that the concern for inflation persists “raises a question on the leadership of the incumbent administration and their capacity to listen to and solve pressing problems of the nation given that we are approaching the middle of the term,” Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Danniel Manuel said in a statement.
“For multiple surveys now, high prices and fees remain to be among the most urgent concern of Filipinos,” he said.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. earlier this month said his administration will pursue non-monetary measures including plugging supply gaps to stabilize prices this year.
Economists have also cited the impact of El Niño on food and utilities, higher global oil prices, potential increases in transport fares as key risks to the inflation outlook this year.
Mr. Marcos said the El Niño weather pattern, which will likely extend up to the second half of this year, and geopolitical risks could “trample” the optimistic growth outlook for the Philippines, which grew by 5.9% in the third quarter last year.
“Abroad, escalating geopolitical tensions could dampen global trade, tighten global financing, as well as trigger fuel and food shocks that could tow inflation back up,” he said after appointing a new Finance chief, who has been ordered to work with other officials in devising strategies that will tame inflation.
In the Octa survey, controlling inflation was followed by the need to boost people’s access to affordable food (45%), create more jobs (36%), increase wages (34%), and reduce poverty (32%).
There were 1.83 million jobless Filipinos in November last year, down from 2.09 million a month earlier and 2.18