FINANCE Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the government will ramp up its efforts to boost food supply either via local production or importation in order to temper the country’s accelerating inflation.
“To manage inflation, the continued timely implementation of government measures is crucial in mitigating the impact of persistent supply-side pressures on food and other commodity prices,” Diokno said in a statement on Wednesday when September inflation was reported to have accelerated to 6.9 percent from 6.3 percent in August.
“The government intensifies its measures to help increase the domestic supply by ramping up local production, ensuring timely importation of goods, fertilizers, and raw materials, and improving distribution efficiency,” he added.
Diokno pointed out that the country must “produce” and “import” its “needed” commodities.
“Given regional production and price disparities, it is equally important that these goods are efficiently distributed. The government is already looking at regions where inflation is high and which goods are driving inflation to address any bottlenecks,” he said.
Diokno said inflation is “expected” to “remain elevated’’ in the last quarter of the year,given the recent fare hike and the impact of Supertyphoon Karding on the country’s food supply.
“However, inflation is still seen to fall within the 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent assumption of the Development Budget Coordination Committee [DBCC] for 2022,” he said.