President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday that the rising inflation rate in the Philippines is a helpless case.
Duterte said that having “brilliant minds” in his Cabinet will not be enough to address the problem because of “trade imbalance”, reported GMA News.
“I have assembled all of the talents available… low-key but brilliant minds. ‘Yun ba namang inflation na ‘yan, kung sa mga utak na ‘yan hindi kaya, hindi talaga kaya eh. Wala, wala tayong magawa kasi… trade balance is not really even. We pay more buying outside than we export,” Duterte said during the Philippine Quality Award Conferment Ceremony.
He said in another speech during the conferment of the National Artist Award that it would also be difficult to find a solution to the problem since the Philippines does not produce oil.
“We don’t have the buffer on oil. The reserve, we can just increase little by little, but we don’t have that luxury, and that is why inflation is high. You can crucify me, behead me, I cannot do anything in oil,” he said.
“I’m not saying that we are not responsible for the inflation because when you are here, you swallow everything. Sa panahon mo eh,” Duterte added.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on October 5 that inflation rate in the country has further risen to a new nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September.
The inflation rate is defined as the sustained increase in the prices of general and common goods and services in a country.
The September inflation rate was slightly higher than the 6.4 percent rate reported in August and is the highest since March 2009.
