Effect of lower inflation rates on the poor downplayed

SLUM LIFE Around the glitzy business districts of Metro Manila are poor neighborhoods, like this community in Makati City’s Guadalupe district, where families face the daily struggle of putting food on their tables. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — An announcement saying that inflation rates went down has no effect on the majority of Filipinos who are wallowing in poverty.

This was the reaction of Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list Representative France Castro.

She was referring to a report of the Philippine Statistics Authority that inflation rate for April had decreased from 7.6 percent in March 2023 to 6.6 percent in April.

Castro said poor families cannot feel any comfort from these figures because the salaries remain low.

“Sa mahihirap at kulang sa pambili ng pagkain, ni hindi nila nararamdaman na bumaba daw ang inflation. Hanggang nananatiling mababa ang sahod ng mga manggagawa at kumakalam ang sikmura ng karamihan, walang saysay na ipagmalaki ito ng gobyerno,” she said.

(For poor families who do not have money to buy food, they do not even feel the decline in inflation. For as long as the salary of workers remain meager and their stomachs experience hunger pangs, it is useless for government to flaunt this development.)

The lawmaker also said government cannot consider the matter an accomplishment.

“Even though April’s inflation rate is within Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 6.3 to 7.1 percent estimate, it’s still way above government’s 2 to 4 percent target range,” she noted.

READ: Philippine inflation eased further to 6.6% in April

April’s inflation rates are slower than predicted, as experts expected around seven percent for the month.

PSA attributed the slower growth in prices to the moderate increase in prices of food like vegetables, fish, and meat.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said inflation slowing down for the third month implies a downtrend in the inflation numbers — moving closer to the goal of two to four percent by 2024.

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