MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte is addressing inflation with recent directives, the head of his economic team said.
The President’s orders aim to remove non-tariff barriers and streamline administrative procedures on the importation of agricultural products and reduce the gap between farm gate and retail prices of agricultural products, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.
“We have addressed that [inflation],” Dominguez was quoted as saying in a statement from his office.
“The President has instructed all the agencies that regulate importation of food items to loosen the non-tariff barriers and move ahead,” he said.
Government agencies were tasked to ensure efficient delivery of imported agricultural and fishery products from ports to markets. The National Food Authority was instructed to release rice stocks in its warehouses, he said.
Imposing price controls risks reducing supply, Dominguez said, adding the government was working to increase the volume of goods available.
Dominguez said world crude prices, interest rates adjustments by the US Federal Reserve, global trade tensions, supply issues and weather-related events contributed to the 6.4 percent inflation in August.
“We are experiencing the headwinds but I think we are tackling them both from the monetary policy side as well as from the administrative side,” Dominguez said. (ABS-CBN News)
