Inflation? Economic managers blame big spenders

L & # 39; inflation? Economic managers blame big spenders

MANILA, Philippines – Growing inflation is caused by a series of external factors as well as by the Filipinos' enormous appetite for spending, economic officials said yesterday [19659003] at the forum Tatak ng Pagbabago pre-SONA 2018 Yesterday, economic directors said that the main contributors to inflation are soaring world oil prices and strong consumer demand that is rapidly surpassing the price of oil. offer.

Diwa Guinigundo, vice governor of Bangko Sentral, said that an increase of 0.06% inflation. World oil prices have risen to more than $ 72 a barrel largely because of Middle East tensions and supply problems.

Guinigundo, however, said he was confident that overall inflation would decrease in the third quarter of the year and return to two to four per cent by 2019.

"This are temporal, not permanent factors, "he said.

As this has developed, the Ministry of Labor and Employment (DOLE) admitted that the inflation rate In an interview, Silvestre Bello III Labor Secretary said that workers will have to adjust "whether you are a minimum wage worker or not" because of rising prices for goods and services.

Opposition representative Edcel Lagman of Albay accused the government of misleading people about inflation by minimizing its effects, while senators urged the administration to intervene and reduce the burden on consumers.

Rosemarie Edillon, Undersecretary The increase in inflation is also partly caused by the fact that more money in the economy is in search of fewer assets.

This occurs when producers struggle to meet the growing demand that accompanies an increase in prices. salary at home. "Demand exceeds supply," she said. "It is therefore necessary to increase the capacity."

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that several consumer basket products such as cigarettes and sugary drinks are expected to be more expensive via excise taxes for health reasons. these are the two things we want the prices to go up. We were not surprised that soft drink prices have risen as well as cigarette prices, "he said.

He also noted that legislating higher wages for employees has boosted their prices. buying power, injecting into the economy around P32 billion a month and circulating and people are buying.I do not think the savings rate is going up, "he said.

This, he says, occurs alongside aggressive public spending on infrastructure.

"It's a problem we want Dominguez

Deceiver

Lagman said that President Duterte's "apologists" had falsely downplayed the high inflation rate by saying that it was not alarming because people had more money to spend on a freer income. of tax under the Tax Reform Act of Acceleration and Inclusion (T RAIN) and free tuition fees at public universities and colleges (SUC).

Lagman said that it was a great deception. benefiting from tax-free income of P250,000 per year since minimum wage workers have long enjoyed a tax exemption and have no monthly income of 21,000 pesos, ie the income cap free of tax.

fees for co "The secondary education in SUS is only a percentage of the total expenses of a student who has to spend for housing, transportation, allocation. meals and books and teaching materials, "he added

. students are housed in public schools, while 66 percent are enrolled in private colleges and universities and therefore do not benefit from the free college education program.

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV called for the full implementation of mitigation measures provided for by TRAIN law by reiterating his call to suspend the tax measure. – With Jess Diaz, Marvin Sy