Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 23) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said he is determined to bring down the prices of goods in the first quarter of 2023, and he admitted that the country’s high inflation causes him to “lose sleep every night.”
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“That’s what I lose sleep every night over is how to bring down inflation. So I’m determined to bring it down — to make sure that the inflation starts to come down in the first quarter,” Marcos said in a media interview.
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This echoes Finance chief Benjamin Diokno’s economic outlook that inflation will start to ease this year as he predicts the outcome to be within the target band of 2% to 4% by 2024.
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From 8% in November, the country’s inflation rate quickened to 8.1% in December 2022 — the highest since November 2008. This also brought the 2022 average to 5.8%.
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Marcos made the statement on inflation after he was asked about how the Philippines is being praised as one of the best-performing economies in Asia.
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He emphasized that inflation is just one of the many factors that international economic executives consider, citing the country’s high growth rate and low unemployment rate.
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“Dahil iyong inflation ang pinag-uusapan, isang aspeto lang ‘yan sa ekonomiya [Inflation is just one aspect of the economy],” Marcos said.
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“Kasi maghanap ka ng bansa na 7.1% ang growth rate, na bumaba ng 4.2% ang unemployment rate na mas mababa ngayon kaysa sa bago ng pandemya… At pati ‘yung peso medyo tumibay na. Kaya’t palagay ko hindi lang ang inflation [ang tinitingnan] kasi lahat naman ng ibang bansa ganyan din ang inflation eh,” he added.
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[Translation: Because you can look for a country with a 7.1% growth rate, with a 4.2% unemployment rate that is lower now than before the pandemic… Also the peso is relatively stable. So I think it’s not just inflation that’s being looked at because all other countries have the same inflation.]
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According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the nation’s unemployment rate in November 2022 was 4.2% — the lowest in 17 years.
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Marcos earlier claimed the country has been included in a “VIP club” during the recent World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The “VIP” being Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines as investment destinations in Asia.
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“Wala namang ‘VIP’ noon eh. Nangyari lang ‘yan dahil nagpe-present tayo doon sa Davos at marami tayong ipinakita, marami tayong paliwanag, marami tayong diskusyon sa kanila,” he explained.
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[Translation: There was no ‘VIP’ back then. That just happened because we presented at Davos. We explained a lot, we had a lot of discussions with them.]
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