MANILA, Philippines — Despite inflation concerns and the weakening of the peso, President Marcos described the Philippines as “more than steady.”
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Sunday, Marcos attributed the weakness of the peso and higher unemployment partly to inflation and reduced public spending following the flood control corruption scandal.
“The peso to the dollar, it’s because of inflation, because of all the weaknesses that we are seeing. Unemployment went up. And that’s, again, because of lack of public spending. That’s the effect there. So at least it’s something that we can do something about and are doing something about,” Marcos said.
He declined to make promises about inflation, citing high oil prices and the continuing Middle East conflict, but said economic improvements should become visible as government spending increases and more jobs are created.
Inflation eased to 6.1 percent in August from 6.2 percent in July as food prices rose at a slower pace.
However, average inflation for the first eight months reached 5.2 percent, well above the government’s full-year target of three percent.
Unemployment also climbed to six percent in July from 4.9 percent in June and 5.3 percent a year earlier, translating to 3.14 million jobless Filipinos. It was the highest unemployment rate since June 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
To address this, the President said the administration was expanding assistance programs to cushion vulnerable sectors from the impact of the Middle East crisis, including subsidies for farmers and scholarships.
“The UPLIFT program is having a good effect, we see in the stats that those that are being reached by these programs are widening in terms of who gets assistance from the government as the... systems of assistance become more established,” he said.
National government outstanding debt reached P19.39 trillion at the end of July.
Marcos made the remarks before returning to Manila early Monday after a two-day working visit to New Delhi, where he represented the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations at the 18th BRICS Summit. — Helen Flores