Research group IBON said that despite reported slower\ninflation, daily expenses are still rising and too expensive for the majority\nof Filipinos who suffer low and stagnant incomes. The group also said that\nslowing inflation mainly reflects a slackening economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported lower\nnationwide inflation at 0.8% in October 2019 from 0.9% the previous month and\n6.7% in October last year. Meanwhile, National Capital Region (NCR) inflation\nincreased to 1.3% in October 2019 from 0.9% in September 2019. But was lower\nthan the 6.1% inflation in October 2018. The uptick in NCR inflation was due to\nhigher annual inflation in alcoholic beverages and tobacco, food and\nnon-alcoholic beverages, and clothing and footwear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON executive director Sonny Africa said that lower\ninflation is generally better for poor and low-income consumers as slower price\nincreases will weigh less on low wages and incomes. He noted however that lower\nreported inflation is from a high base last year when prices dramatically rose.\nYet some food items are still more expensive now than last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Metro Manila, for example, the cost of pork, chicken,\nfish, eggs and many vegetables in the last week of October 2019 was much higher\nthan in the same period last year. The price of pork increased by Php50;\nchicken by Php30; tilapia<\/em> by Php20; sitao<\/em> by Php20; and potato\nand native pechay<\/em> by Php15. Rice is a notable exception in being\nslightly cheaper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Africa said however that the majority of Filipinos\u2019 incomes\nare still far below what is needed to live decently and still eroding further\ndespite reportedly lower inflation. In NCR for instance, the real value of the\nminimum wage or taking inflation into account is actually lower today compared\nto November last year. Measured at 2012 prices, the real value of the Php537\nNCR minimum wage has fallen to Php453 today from Php459 in November 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also likely that inflation is slowing because the\neconomy is slowing from faltering investments, stalling infrastructure\nspending, and the global economic slowdown, said Africa. So far under the\nDuterte administration, gross domestic product (GDP) growth has declined from 6.9%\nin 2016 to 6.7% in 2017 and 6.2% in 2018. The 5.5% growth in the second quarter\nof 2019 is the lowest in 17 quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign direct investments shrank by 39.8% from US$6.8 billion\nin January-July 2018 to US$4.1 billion in the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, infrastructure\nspending growth contracted from 45.9% in January-September 2018 to -4.3% in the\nsame period this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Africa said that lower inflation alone is meaningless if Filipinos\nespecially the poor continue to be burdened with high prices and little to no\nincomes. The government should not ignore this nor the signs of a slowing\neconomy. Immediate steps for government should include supporting and developing\ndomestic agriculture, as well as substantially increasing wages and salaries to\ngive relief to Filipino households. ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo from Coconuts Manila<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Research group IBON said that despite reported slower inflation, daily expenses are still rising and too expensive for the majority of Filipinos who suffer low and stagnant incomes. The group also said that slowing inflation mainly reflects a slackening economy. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported lower nationwide inflation at 0.8% in October 2019 from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048,14],"tags":[347,1461,2100,1790,116,1014,2047,2099],"class_list":["post-8722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner","category-news","tag-duterte-administration","tag-high-prices","tag-low-salaries","tag-low-wages","tag-philippine-economy","tag-prices","tag-programs-and-policies","tag-slowing-economy","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 18:18:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8724,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions\/8724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}