MANILA, Feb. 6 (PNA) — The country’s economic managers remain confident that inflation will be kept within their target and the government will closely watch recent economic developments to protect consumers from price adjustments, the Palace said on Thursday.
“The government also continues to monitor closely the movement of consumer prices in order to protect the citizens’ purchasing power,” said Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. in a statement.
Coloma also said the government’s economic managers are aware of the pressures exerted by global developments, especially the tapering policies of the US Federal Reserve that have affected the peso-dollar exchange rates and are doing the necessary measures to protect the country from these adjustments.
“While the inflation rate in January rose to 4.2 percent, our economic managers are confident that inflation will be kept within the DBCC (Development Budget Coordination Committee) target, ranging from three to five percent,” he added.
The Philippines’s inflation rate in December increased to its highest level in two years as a result of devastation of Typhoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas region, the government said.
The National Statistics Office (NSO) said inflation in December was at 4.1 percent, the highest since December 2011 when the country’s inflation rate was at 4.2 percent.
And while the Philippines and other emerging market economies are feeling the brunt of structural adjustments in the US and other leading markets, the country’s sound macroeconomic fundamentals makes it in a better position to reap the potential benefits from the economic recovery of the US and European countries that have significant trade and invest in the Philippines, Coloma said. (PNA)