THE Duterte government remains "focused" on ensuring that the pace of increase in consumer prices will further slow down, Malacañang assured the public on Tuesday, February 5.
The Palace made the vow as the country's annual headline inflation was at 4.4 percent in January 2019, the lowest pace since April 2019.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the executive was "pleased" with the declining trend of inflation rate.
"The Palace is pleased with the good news that for the third straight month, inflation continues to drop, registering at 4.4 percent in January 2019 based on the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which was released today," Panelo said.
"We will remain on guard in monitoring the prices of basic goods and commodities as we aim to mitigate poverty and hunger, driven by the President’s economic goal to lay down and build the foundation to a comfortable life for the present and future generations," he added.
The PSA reported that the Philippine inflation clocked in at 4.4 percent in January this year, slower compared with December 2018's 5.1 percent but faster than January 2018's 3.4 percent.
The latest rate of the rise in prices of goods was mainly driven by the slowdown in the annual increase in the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages, easing to 5.6 percent from December 2018's 6.7 percent.
The PSA also attributed the fall in inflation to slower price increases in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (16.1 percent); clothing and footwear (2.5 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (four percent), health (4.3 percent), and transport (2.5 percent).
In September to October 2018, the country's inflation came in at a nine-year high of 6.7 percent.
Despite the soaring prices of basic goods and services last year because of "uncontrollable factors," Panelo said the current administration was "not disheartened nor cowed" to temper inflation.
Panelo said the government's efforts to ease inflation bore fruit when the rise in prices of goods "simmered down to six percent in November 2018 and slid further to 5.1 percent in December 2018."
"With the President’s strong and decisive action, we remained focused and steadfast as we addressed the conditions that contributed significantly to inflation," he said.
"With inflation further tapering down to a 10-month low of 4.4 percent [in January], this administration will oversee and ensure that its consequent effects at the market would be felt by the ordinary consumer," Panelo added. (SunStar Philippines)