The inflation rate for the month of November slowed down at 6 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday, December 5.
The inflation rate recovered after hitting 6.7 percent in September and October, the highest in nine years.
The decline in inflation rate was attributed to the previous rollbacks in oil prices and the recovery of rice supply in the country.
Lower prices in different commodity sectors were also noted for the month.
“Slowdowns in the annual increase were noted in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 8.0 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 4.2 percent; and communication at 0.4 percent,” National Statistician and PSA chief Lisa Grace Bersales said.
The rate is also lower than the Department of Finance’s prediction for the month of November which is 6.3 percent, and is within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) prediction of 5.8 percent to 6.6 percent.
“The November headline inflation at 6.0 percent is very encouraging… It confirms that inflation is heading back to the 2-4 percent target range in response to non-monetary measures to curb food prices as well as favorable recent developments in highly volatile international oil prices,” BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said.
Earlier, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said that inflation would begin to stabilize towards the end of the year.
How will this affect OFWs?
Inflation rate is defined as the sustained increase in the prices of general and common goods and services in a country.
While the dirham-peso exchange remains high within the Php14.50 – Php14.60 range, as of press time, it means nothing for OFW families if the continuous inflation in the country and uptick in prices would be taken into consideration.
ACTS-OFW Representative Aniceto Bertiz III said the one way to help OFWs is by lowering charges in remittances. Bertiz said it can help OFWs save extra money since the rising prices of goods in the country only negates the lower value of peso.
“Reducing the cost of bank remittance services to 5% would mean some $1.5 billion or P80.1 billion in cost-savings and extra money in the pockets of our migrant workers and their families every year,” Bertiz said.
