Saturday, April 6, 2019
BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
The inflation rate in Western Visayas remained steady in March, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority yesterday showed.
The inflation rate of the region dropped to 3.2 percent from 3.3 percent in the previous month. It is slightly lower compared to the national average that decelerated to 3.3 percent in March from 3.8 percent in February.
Western Visayas was among the regions in the country with the lowest inflation rate in all commodity groups, placing sixth in all of the 17 regions.
Zamboanga Peninsula posted the lowest inflation rate at 2 percent while Mimaropa has the highest increase at 4.8 percent.
Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer, said he is upbeat over the development, and said that low inflation will encourage more consumer spending.
“More spending will result in faster growth of our economy while the infrastructure spending of the national government will be the main driver of our economy in the second quarter,” he said.
Election money and infrastructure spending will offset the negative effect of drought in the agriculture and fishery sector, he also said. Tourism money during the summer will also be a big boost to the second quarter spending, he added.
Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), said the slight decrease in the prices of commercial rice and table sugar had contributed to the lowering of inflation.
“When there is more or adequate supply, prices go down but it’s hard to tell because government statisticians have their own way of making a poor economy looks rosy,” Sancho said.
He pointed out that statistics can be manipulated by the government and asked if the drop in the inflation really has an impact on the poor, and if it increased the purchasing power of workers.
The PSA said the slowdown in the inflation was primarily attributed to the slower annual increase in the index of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 4.7 percent.
For Western Visayas, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased to 4 percent from 5.1 percent, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 10 percent from 11 percent; clothing and footwear, 1.3 percent from .8 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 2.8 percent from 2.5 percent; furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house, 1.8 percent from 1.6 percent; and health, 1.7 percent from 1.4 percent.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement yesterday that the latest inflation reading is consistent with its expectations that inflation will continue to settle within the 2 to 4 percent target range for 2019 and 2020.
The BSP will continue to monitor emerging price and output conditions to ensure price stability conducive to a balanced and sustainable economic growth, it added.*
