SEOUL – Domestic fuel and rice prices are expected to temper down amid the anticipation that the Philippines’ inflation rate would start to level off, economic managers announced here Tuesday.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III tried to assure Filipinos about the eventual drop in the country’s inflation rate even after it accelerated to 4.6 percent last May.
“It seems to me that the inflation rate is, I hope, levelling off. I think this is a sign of levelling off and probably dropping,” Dominguez said during a press conference on the sidelines of President Duterte’s official visit here.
“In the second half of the year, the inflation should be on the downtrend. In fact the estimate for the inflation for next year is below 4 percent,” he added.
Dominguez cited that world oil prices have been on the “downtrend” based on the government’s close monitoring.
He said the price of future deliveries of fuel are “actually lower than the current prices.” “So we are seeing that trend doing down, he added.
Dominguez also highlighted that the moves involving the United States and North Korea are “going to calm the markets quite a bit.” He also expressed hope that the Middle East would be “calmer than what it has been past few weeks so fuel prices would not be too volatile.”
According to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, rice prices are also expected to decrease with the expected arrival of government-led imports this month.
“Even on the prices, we expect, for example rice, also to temper down in terms of pricing because we expect the importation to come in already by this first part of June,” he said in the same press briefing.