Mukhang Pera October easier on the wallet Breaking News
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| October easier on the wallet |
|
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| Written by Sabrina Oliveros | |
| Monday, 10 November 2008 | |
The Philippines'
inflation rate eased marginally to 11.2% last month from 11.9% in
September and a record 12.5% last August, the country's highest since
1991, reported the Associated
Press. The National
Statistics Office credited
the new figure to “the continued slowing down in the annual price
increases of the heavily weighted food, beverages and tobacco and
services items.”
The October inflation rate—attributed to falling consumer prices, especially oil costs—exceeded the Central Bank's expected figure of 11.3 to 12.1%, said the Agence France-Presse. After inflation rates peaked in August, the Central Bank of the Philippines predicted that inflation would continue to be in double-digit figures until March or April 2009, reported inquirer.net. Prior to the release of the October statistics, Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo offered a more optimistic projection, saying that rates could break into single digits as early as February next year. “Commodity prices, particularly food and fuel have started to decrease. In short, we are seeing today the possibility of an earlier return to single digit [inflation],” he was quoted as saying last October 24.An economist from the University of Asia and the Pacific, in turn, speculated that improvement could come as early as next month. “The dramatic plunge in oil and commodity prices now makes policy makers happier as we may see single-digit inflation rates year-on-year as early as December this year, or January 2009 at worst,” Victor Abola was quoted as saying by abs-cbnnews.com. Meanwhile, a study conducted by the media research group Nielsen revealed that Filipino consumers are still “upbeat” despite the global financial crisis, said inquirer.net. The Philippines’ consumer confidence level was registered at 102 points, three markers higher than its score for the first half of 2008 and considerably higher than the global average of 84. The country ranked 9th out of the 52 surveyed and was one of the four countries in the 17-nation Asia Pacific group that showed a higher increased confidence level. Most of the 500 respondents from the Philippines said that they spend their spare cash on vacations, clothes, debts, home improvement and retirement. “There’s a bit of optimism among affluent Filipino consumers as the prices of food and fuel are going down,” Nielsen Philippines Managing Director Benedicto Cid was quoted as saying by manilatimes.net. “People see a lot of signs of economic distress. They worry about that,” he added. “For them, a recession means bad economic news but personally, they are not feeling it yet.” Pump prices also continued to go down in the first week of November, following the recent spate of rollbacks for automobile and cooking gas products.Photo: “a penny saved..” by aquino.paolo, taken from Flickr.com. Licensed under Creative Commons license number BY-NC-ND-2.0-DEED.EN
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