Senate committee seeks measures to cushion effects of soaring inflation

The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs will give priority to identifying measures to mitigate the impact of the soaring inflation.

Committee chairman Senator Win Gatchalian said this after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed that consumer prices in the Philippines were up by 5.7 percent in July, the fastest inflation rate in at least five years.

“In response to this, the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs will hold another hearing to tackle potential inflation mitigation measures. One critical matter to be discussed will be measures aimed
at slowing the steady increase of food prices,” Gatchalian said in a statement on Tuesday.

Citing the PSA, Gatchalian said inflation continues to be driven primarily by the acceleration in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, currently pegged at 7.1 percent.

“Rising food prices have a particularly negative impact on poor families in the bottom 30 percent in terms of income because they spend almost twice as much of their budget (roughly 70%) on food
alone,” he noted.

The senator also said “it is the priority of the committee to identify solutions to keep food prices down and ensure that poor Filipino families will have enough food to put on the table.”

“Several solutions to curb food inflation have been floated, including the reduction of tariffs on staple foodstuffs. For each solution suggested, the committee will look for the answer to two key questions. The first: How much savings will this solution produce for food consumers? The second: How will this solution affect the domestic agricultural and fisheries industries?” he added.

The latest PSA data is nearly twice as fast as 2.4 percent in July 2017, and an acceleration from the 5.2 percent logged in June 2018.   /vvp