Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said on Friday the government should facilitate the movement of food products, especially staples like rice and cereals, from the regions experiencing a surplus to the deficit regions of the country to temper the price pressure on the staple food products.
Beltran said that while the inflation rate on food products registered in October at 7 percent was lower than the 7.4-percent rate registered the previous month, the price index on major food items actually increased.
“While the overall food price inflation has eased a bit in October, major food items, prices of rice and bread and cereals, have shown some upward pressure,” Beltran said in a statement
The inflation rate on rice averaged 10.9 percent in October, up from 10.7 percent in September. The inflation rate on bread and cereals was up to 9 percent, from 8.8 percent.
“This is due to the delayed onset of the rice harvest in some regions caused by dry weather conditions,” Beltran said.
He recommended that the Department of Agriculture should facilitate the movement of these staple food products from the surplus regions to the deficit regions to ensure that the prices are stable.
On the overall inflation rate of 4.3 percent in October, Beltran said that the decline by 0.1 percent from the inflation rate in the previous month would allow the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to maintain the existing monetary settings, after increasing the overnight borrowing and lending rates by 25 basis points twice this year.
“The lower inflation in October will enable BSP to maintain accommodative monetary policy that will boost the country’s capability to sustain economic growth during the last months of 2014,” Beltran said.
Beltran attributed the slight decline in the inflation rate of only 4.3 percent in October to the decrease in the overall inflation in food prices, although this was offset by a higher inflation rate on the prices of other basic necessities like housing needs and utilities.
David Cagahastian