GOV’T TO REMAIN VIGILANT ON OIL PRICE VOLATILITY
Despite Feb ’12 registering lowest inflation in almost 3 years
MANILA—The
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that the government
remains vigilant and mindful of the renewed volatility in the prices of
petroleum products even as the country’s headline inflation rate in February
2012 slowed down to 2.7 percent.
“Petroleum products are considered as input costs to production and in
transporting people and goods that ultimately affect headline inflation. Given
the substantial impact of a very high oil price, reasonable and timely
implementation of programs and projects are vital in maintaining stable
consumer prices while ensuring continuous supply of goods and services,”
said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr.
Paderanga made this statement following the National Statistics Office (NSO)
report on the headline inflation in February 2012, which he noted was the
country’s lowest since October 2009.
Headline inflation rate is the percent change in the average prices of goods
and services commonly purchased by households, as measured by the Consumer
Price Index (CPI).
“For the first two months of 2012, the headline inflation averaged ate 3.3
percent, which is within the Philippine Development Plan’s target of 3.0 to 5.0
percent,” said Paderanga, who is also NEDA Director-General.
The Cabinet official noted that prices of all major commodity groups recorded
slower price upticks last month, except health, which remained at 2.8 percent,
and the very slight increase in the prices of recreation and culture.
Meanwhile, the communication index posted a 0.1 percent price reduction
compared with the 0.2 percent decline in January 2012.
“Prices of food and alcoholic beverages, which comprise 39 percent of the
CPI, increased at a slower rate. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS)
reported that prices were generally stable in Metro Manila from February 22 to
March 01 on account of abundant supplies of fresh farm products at wholesale
markets,” said Paderanga.
Citing data from BAS, the NEDA chief said that continued flow of supplies from
various domestic production sites resulted in significant year-on-year
contractions in the average prices of red onion (-53.5% in February 2012 from
-20.4% in January 2012), tomato (-36.5% from -22.6%), cabbage (-21.7% from
-4.4%), and amargoso (-17.6% from -10.9%), as well as slower price increases of
carrots (6.1% from 61.9%) and native pechay (23.4% from 76.6%).
“The easing of inflation was also recorded in neighboring Southeast Asian
economies,” Paderanga said.
He observed that Thailand and Indonesia’s headline annual inflation in February
2012 slowed down to 3.4 and 3.6 percent, respectively, in February 2012, which
is a decline of 0.03 percentage point (ppt) for Thailand and 0.09 ppt for
Indonesia relative to January 2012. In addition, Singapore and Malaysia’s
January 2012 inflation rates moderated to 4.8 percent and 2.7 percent,
respectively, from 5.5 percent (Singapore) and 3.0 percent (Malaysia) in
December 2011.
MR No. 2012-018
March 11, 2012