BSP: Inflation to hit 3.2% in 2019

MANILA, Philippines—Inflation could hit at an average of 3.2 percent for the entire 2019, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said Thursday.

“We expect inflation to come down to 3.2 percent in 2019 and farther to 3 percent by 2020,” Guinigundo said during a forum in Makati City.

He added that earlier this month, price pressures have started to “dissipate” as inflation is expected to fall within their target for 2019 and 2020.

Guinigundo said BSP’s latest baseline inflation forecasts shifts lower with the decline in global crude oil, the normalization of food supply conditions, and the stabilization of the peso.

Inflation surged to a new 9-year high of 6.7 percent in September 2018. This brought the 9-month average to five percent which is way higher the original 2-4 percent target.

Prices of commodities also rose by an average of 6.2 percent during the third quarter of 2018 alone.

In a bid to tame inflation, President Rodrigo Duterte has issued several measures to boost food supply in order to bring down the cost of staple food items like rice, fish, meat and vegetables, as these saw the biggest price spikes.  /muf