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PRICE
pressures arising from more expensive oil, wage
adjustments in certain regions of the country and
increases on certain food items were seen to have pushed
inflation higher in November.
Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
said the results of the price survey conducted each
month by the National Statistics Office should show
inflation ranging as low as 2.4 percent and as high as
3.1 percent.
“Inflation may be somewhat higher than in October given
the price increases in local petroleum products and
certain food items and higher wages and Cola
[cost-of-living allowance] in some regions,” he told
reporters on Wednesday.
Inflation, or the rate of change in prices, steadied at
2.7 percent in the past two months, although in October
the core rate, which signals its likely path in the
future, eased to 2.4 percent from 2.7 percent
previously.
The
results of the business-expectations survey the BSP
conducts every quarter, however, indicated that prices
were more likely to lift in the final two months before
easing up again in the first quarter next year.
Historically, prices tend to rise during the long
Christmas holidays when most Filipinos engage in a
frenzy of consumer spending.
But the
strengthening peso should help mitigate the impact of
higher prices even as certain food items were seen to
cost less during the period, according to Tetangco.
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