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Friday, November 04, 2004
Editorials: Life beyond inflation
Inflation is the bane of consumers in a country, actually any country subject to the global arrangement called free market economy. It occurs when supply of basic commodities slacken over demand, forcing prices to rise.
There is, for instance, this forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that next year the inflation rate would rise to an estimated 7 percent.
It more than doubles the average 3 percent in 2003, and more than the estimated 5.4 percent this year. It could be the highest rate in five years since 1998’s 9.7 percent.
The phenomenal rise in global price of oil this year has driven domestic food prices up, which was further aggravated by disastrous floods that damaged crops the past months.
Thus, the resulting 6.9 percent rate in September laid the groundwork for the 2005 rate projection that would necessitate further tightening of our money-spending belt.
The BSP projection carries with it a sense of inevitability, meaning, with the way things are in our country now, the forward movement has become predictable. Or anything the government might do can already be determined.
Consider the P5.9 trillion in domestic and foreign debts that, according to the finance department, is about 130 percent more than our gross domestic product (GDP), or more than double what the country produced last year, not counting overseas earnings of Filipinos.
The amount is not only staggering to contemplate, it is both humbling and distressing. And yet, the Arroyo administration has not really come up with a solid, workable economic program that people can optimistically hold on to.
The nation’s economic planning agency head has reportedly admitted that, “there is a large disparity between the country’s economic blueprint targets and the government’s fiscal resources.”
That is saying that efforts to contain the instability of the economy cannot be implemented by the Arroyo administration alone in the face of its fiscal incapability.
There is a critical need for “private-sector involvement, local government unit support, and civil-society support” in order “to meet the targets...”
It is thus imperative that we should prepare for a far sterner life than what the projected inflation rate would bring us.
US elections
If we believe media assessment of Tuesday presidential elections in the United States, it is tempting to volunteer to “export” our dagdag-bawas experts to that place.
Perhaps, handlers of John Kerry and George W. Bush should have sent people here to learn the said skill. With the projected “knife edge” election results, a potential tie should be broken to maintain political peace in that great nation.
Flippancy aside, even among Filipinos the sentiment is divided.
But Kerry’s attitude towards labor outsourcing has gotten him negative votes among Filipinos who have kin in America.
(November 4, 2004 issue)
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