Prices still high despite inflation slowdown – Leni

MANILA, Philippines — The high prices of goods remain a burden on poor families despite the improving inflation figures, Vice President Leni Robredo said yesterday.

“(The inflation rate) slowed down but hasn’t dropped to earlier estimates. If we recall, the estimate is from two to four percent,” Robredo said in her weekly program BISErbisyong Leni over dzXL radio.

The country’s inflation rate fell to a seven-month low of 5.1 percent in December 2018.

“If you look at the average last year, it’s still high,” Robredo said.

“Even if the inflation rate is at five percent now, the prices remain very high,” she said, noting that the country’s inflation hit as high as seven percent last year. “I hope they could bring it down to two percent.”

Robredo said the highest inflation was recorded in her home region Bicol at 10 percent.

The Bicol region was recently hit by Tropical Depression Usman .

“The victims of the recent cyclone will be the most affected because of course the flow of goods is affected. These families did not only lose a family member but livelihood as well,” she said.

Robredo lamented the implementation of the next round of excise tax on oil this month under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act or TRAIN law.

“It would be a big help if they suspended it,” she said.

“But (the government) didn’t listen to us. They pushed through with the next round of oil tax hike so we can no longer expect lower inflation,” Robredo said.

Despite assurances from economic managers that inflation is expected to slow down this year, Congress must still amend Republic Act 10936 or the TRAIN law to allow the government to quickly suspend its provisions whenever necessary, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on economic affairs, said the threshold of $80 per barrel price of oil in the world market set by the law to allow the government to suspend excise taxes on petroleum products should be lowered to at least $70.

He said surges in prices of crude last year did not reach the trigger price and yet prices of basic commodities soared partly because of the TRAIN.

 “We saw that when (oil prices) only breached $70, there was already an effect on consumer prices so I think that (the $80 per barrel threshold) should be removed so that the government would have flexibility,” Gatchalian told dzBB.

“We should also study the timing of imposing excise and other taxes as we have seen, if there are disruptions, like in the supply of rice, there is already major impact on inflation,” he said.

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito earlier welcomed Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez’s pronouncements that inflation is expected to taper down this year due to measures to ease price pressures.

“Families can better cope with the slowing down of inflation if the implementation of the second round of increases in excise taxes on petroleum (products) is suspended,” Ejercito told reporters.

Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the ways and means committee, said the forecast of inflation slowdown is a welcome relief for the public after months of increasing prices. – With Paolo Romero