PBBM forms IAC on inflation, market outlook
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ZELENSKYY VOWS NOT TO RETREAT FROM UKRAINIAN CITY OF BAKHMUT
HE President has approved the creation of a new Interagency committee (IAC) on Inflation and Market Outlook (IMO) to be cochaired by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the Department of Finance (DOF). The Department of Budget and Management will be the vice chairperson of the IAC. The committee will also be composed of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Energy, Department of Science and
Technology, and Department of the Interior and Local Government. The Philippine Statistics Authority, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and Philippine Competition Commission will serve as the Committee’s resource institutions. “This newly formed committee shall serve as an advisory body to the President and the Cabinet on measures to mitigate inflation and ensure food and energy security while balancing the interests of local food producers, consumers, and the overall economy,” the Neda
said in a statement on Tuesday. DOF Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said as a high-level IAC on IMO, the committee will help craft measures to mitigate inflation and ensure food and energy security. “We will carefully balance the interests of producers, consumers, and the economy. This will allow us to have greater flexibility and more timely recommendations on the timing and amount of imports,” Diokno said. The advisory body, Neda said, will lead the close monitoring of
inflation (particularly on food and energy and their main drivers and causes), facilitate regular and efficient data-sharing among concerned agencies. It will help assess the supplydemand situation for energy and essential food commodities, provide forward estimates given various scenarios, and provide timely recommendations to the President and relevant agencies on measures to curb possible price spikes and See “IAC,” A2
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
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Wednesday, March 8, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 144
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High prices to persist–experts By Cai U. Ordinario
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NTM easing part of DOF tool kit for anti-inflation
@caiordinario
IGH commodity prices may continue despite the slowdown in inflation in February 2023, according to local economists.
On Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said inflation reached 8.6 percent in February 2023. Inflation was at 8.7 percent in January and at 3 percent in February 2023. (Full story here: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/03/07/inflation-slows-down-to-8-6-infebruary-psa/) University of the Philippines School of Economics head of research Renato E. Reside Jr. told BusinessMirror that core inflation is the indicator to watch as it reached 7.8 percent in February. The PSA said this is the highest since March 1999 when it was at 8.1 percent. “If it’s the highest since 1999, it probably means we’re sti l l in for a rough ride in the next few months as price pressures
continue to reverberate through our economy. This is why the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) is sounding increasingly hawkish,” Reside said. Reside said core inflation measures inflation for commodities that are not volatile and excludes certain food and energy items. The movements also lag those in prices of energy and food. “So core inflation movements measure how quickly price pressures and expectations travel through the rest of the economy after the initial shock from food and energy,” Reside said. Ateneo de Manila University economist Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr. agreed and told BusinessMirror that inflation remains See “High prices,” A2
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
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NATURE IN PERIL In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard, a coast guard personnel collects water samples from an oil spill in the waters off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, central Philippines, Thursday March 2, 2023. Oil leaking from Philippine tanker MT Princess Empress that sank off a province southwest of the capital has prompted at least seven coastal towns to temporarily ban fishing and swimming, officials said Thursday. PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD VIA AP
HE Finance department is pushing for further easing of various non-tariff measures (NTMs), such as fewer import permits, to facilitate easier entry of food supplies to temper the country’s accelerated inflation rate. Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno on Tuesday disclosed that he presented to President Marcos Jr. the various short-term and long-term measures that are necessary in addressing the increasing the country’s inflation rate. Part of these measures were the removal of the certificate of necessity to import (CNI) for fish and digitizing and centralizing of See “Anti-inflation,” A2
ILO: INFLATION, ABUSE, GENDER GAP HOUND WOMEN By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
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OMEN workers continue to bear t he brunt of the pressures caused by high inflation and workplace abuses, according to the coalition of the country’s largest labor groups and a new report from the International Labor Organization (ILO). In a joint statement, members of the Nagkaisa labor coalition said female employees, who usually end up in precarious and underpaid jobs, are also left to deal with family affairs and finances. “While inflation hurts ev-
eryone, it hurts women more,” Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) Chief of Staff Jillian Roque said. “As inflation continues to erode purchasing power, women are forced to make sacrifices for their families by starving themselves and skipping on meals, or cutting back on essential items and services including health care,” she added. The latest Gender Statistics on Labor and Employment of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that of the 25 million wage and salary workers in 2017, most or 16 million are male, while the remaining 9 million are female.
A similar trend was also observed for the self-employed: 6.8 million of the 11.1 million workers in the sector are men. In contrast, women make up more of the unpaid family workers in the said period with 1.4 million, while the remaining million are male.
New ILO report
THIS was also shown in a new ILO report, which made use of its “gender gap” indicator. The study showed 15 percent of working-age women worldwide want to work, but are unable to do so. Males in similar conditions were much lower at only 10.5 percent.
“The jobs gap is particularly severe in developing countries where the proportion of women unable to find a job reaches 24.9 percent in low-income countries. The corresponding rate for men in the same category is 16.6 percent, a worryingly high level but significantly lower than that for women,” ILO said in a statement. Partido Manggagawa Secretary General Judy Miranda said many women employees are also hired under a contractual arrangement, which left them earning less and being more vulnerable in workplaces than their male counterparts. See “ILO,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.8440 n JAPAN 0.4035 n UK 65.9444 n HK 6.9871 n CHINA 7.9100 n SINGAPORE 40.7762 n AUSTRALIA 36.8936 n EU 58.5734 n KOREA 0.0423 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.6138 Source:
BSP (7 March 2023)