DOF does the math: Low inflation equals high growth

The reign of low inflation was seen to boost the Philippine government’s efforts to pump prime economic growth in the second half of the year to make up for below-target growth in the first half of the year, fiscal authorities said on Friday (Aug. 6).

In a statement, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran also predicted inflation to stay stuck in the 1 percent zone until October before an expected rise due to increased consumer demand for goods during the Christmas season.

“Slower inflation will give room for government to aim at higher gross domestic product growth,” said Beltran, who is also chief economist of the Department of Finance.

On Thursday (Sept. 5) the government announced that prices of basic goods and services rose at their slowest pace in almost three years in August.

Officials attributed this to President Rodrigo Duterte’s decisiveness amd foresight.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, headline inflation rate decelerated further to 1.7 percent in August, marking the lowest consumer price index level since the 1.8 percent recorded in October 2016./tsb