President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. sees the need to improve the country's production following the all-time high 8.1 percent inflation rate in the last month of 2022.
On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the December 2022 inflation slightly increased from the 8.0 percent recorded in November 2022. It is also the highest inflation recorded since November 2008.
"It’s still agricultural products, 38 percent of the inflation — 11 percent is fuel, 38 percent is agricultural products pa rin. Kaya’t kailangan talagang ayusin ‘yung production natin. Kasi import tayo nang import. So ‘yung inflation doon sa ini-importan natin nadadala dito sa Pilipinas," Marcos told reporters before his departure in Beijing, China.
The President recently finished his three-day state visit to China where he was able to earn a total of $22.8 billion or over PHP 1.2 trillion in investment pledges for the country.
"We have to improve our production. We have to improve all of that. Kaya naman talagang central ang agriculture sa lahat. Thirty-eight percent of the inflation comes from agricultural products. We talked about fuel. Eleven percent ang fuel. So ‘yun ang dalawa talaga na kailangan natin tutukan," Marcos Jr. continued.
According to PSA, the uptrend in the December 2022 national inflation was mainly attributed to food and non-alcoholic beverages with a 10 percent inflation rate and 38.9 percent share in the uptrend.
It added that vegetables, tubers, rice, fruits, and nuts were the major drivers in the spike in inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
The restaurants and accommodation services also contributed to the December 2022 inflation with a 7.0 percent inflation rate from 6.5 percent in November 2022.
This was followed by the commodity group of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels with an inflation rate of 7.0 percent also.
