ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
A broader look at today’s business n
Saturday, April 6, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 172
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
P25.00 nationwide | 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
ALDAR DARMAEV | DREAMSTIME.COM
RICE PRICES SURGING AS INFLATION HITS 3.7%
R
BSP’s outlook, NG’s tracking
By Cai U. Ordinario
ICE prices again jumped to a level last seen when the country had to grapple with supply issues caused by export bans imposed by riceproducing nations, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Rice prices have been rising since January 2022 at 1 percent from the 0.1 deflation in December 2021 and 0.3 percent increase in January 2021. The PSA said regular-milled, well-milled, and special rice categories all exhibited double-digit increases year-on-year and singledigit growth month-on-month. “[In our] overall inflation for all income at 3.7 percent, rice inflation contributed 1.8 percentage points, about 48 percent of overall inflation. As for inflation for the bottom 30 percent, dito talaga malaki [this is really big],” Mapa said. “To the inflation for the bottom 30 percent of 4.6 percent, as reported earlier, the rice inflation contributed 3.7 percentage points. So, its contribution to the March 2024 overall inflation is about 80 percent,” he added. Mapa said regular milled rice increased 28.1 percent to P51.11 per kilo in March 2024 from P39.90 per kilo in March 2023. On a month-on-month basis, there was a 1.3-percent increase from the P50.44 per kilo average in February 2024. In terms of well-milled rice, prices grew 27.6 percent to P56.44 per kilo last month from P44.23 per kilo in the same period last year.
On a monthly basis, the growth was 0.9 percent from P55.93 per kilo in February 2024. Special rice prices, meanwhile, increased 19.9 percent to P64.75 per kilo in March 2024 from P54 per kilo in March 2023. Compared to February 2024, special rice prices increased 0.5 percent from P64.42 per kilo.
Continued on A2
MICHAEL EDWARDS | DREAMSTIME.COM
In March 2024, rice inflation accelerated to 24.4 percent, the highest since the 24.6 percent posted in February 2009. The highest rice prices recorded was 36.4 percent in July 2008. PSA said the country’s overall inflation rate was at 3.7 percent in March 2024, faster than the 3.4 percent posted in February 2024. However, inflation was slower compared to the 7.6 percent posted in March 2023. “So, [the] expectation [is], it will actually increase strongly until sometime July because of base effects, unless there is really some intervention in the market [that will suddenly ease the] pressure. We don’t seen any of that now,” National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa said in a briefing on Friday, speaking partly in Filipino. Asked if there is a possibility that rice prices will exceed the 15-year high, Mapa said he would rather wait for the new data to be released in the next few months before he can comment. Nonetheless, data showed rice prices have been increasing in the double digits since September 2023, when rice prices increased 17.9 percent and started the year with a rice inflation of 22.6 percent.
NATIONAL Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa
“INFLATION could temporarily accelerate above the target range in the next two quarters of the year due to the possible impact of adverse weather conditions to domestic agricultural output and positive base effects,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said, however, that the national government is monitoring weather conditions and their effects on the supply of key commodities, particularly food and energy. The PSA said food and transport prices were considered the top causes for faster inflation. In terms of transport prices, PSA data showed it increased 2.1 percent on the back of a 3-percent increase in passenger transport services.
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.4130 n JAPAN 0.3728 n UK 71.3286 n HK 7.2062 n CHINA 7.8005 n SINGAPORE 41.8494 n AUSTRALIA 37.1536 n EU 61.1573 n KOREA 0.0418 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.0403 Source: BSP (April 5, 2024)