MANILA – The recent uptick in inflation caused the Philippine economy to miss the government target growth of 7 to 8 percent in the second quarter, Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto Pernia said Thursday.
“We would have been well within our target of 7 to 8 percent (if not for inflation),” Pernia said at a press conference in Pasig City.
He was responding to questions regarding the effect of inflation on the second-quarter economic growth which was recorded at 6.0 percent, below expectations.
Pernia attributed the growth slowdown to the closure of Boracay Island, and stricter policies on the local mining industry.
Inflation accelerated to 4.5 percent in April, 4.6 percent in May, and 5.2 percent in June, all being the fastest in at least five years during the time.
In May, Pernia already called for government intervention to address the acceleration in inflation, given its implications on the first-quarter economic growth.
“It had a similar effect (on second-quarter) growth, I suppose, because inflation has been higher in the second quarter,” he explained on Thursday.
He also called on the immediate tariffication on rice for private distributors to be able to import supplies, which is currently only being done by the National Food Authority (NFA).
“I think in general, if we just remove the quantitative restrictions on rice and just tariffy, it’s going to have a bigger impact,” he said.
“Rice has the dominant weight on the food basket of consumers, specially the poorest 30 percent,” he elaborated. (GMA News)
