Marcos welcomed the country’s May 2023 inflation rate, which stood at 6.1 percent from 8.7 percent in January, 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March and 6.6 percent in April, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“Today, we received encouraging news that our inflation rate has now gone down — our headline inflation rate has gone down from 6.6 percent to 6.1 percent, and our employment figures are also improving,” said Marcos.
“And so, it would seem that we have started off in the right direction, on the right foot. Tama naman yata ang ating ginawang mga polisiya para buhayin ulit at gawing masigla ulit ang ating ekonomiya (I think the policies we made to revive and make our economy vibrant again are right),” he added.
The PSA said the continuous decline in the headline inflation was driven by the slower index of transport at -0.5 percent from 2.6 percent annual increase in the previous month; food and non-alcoholic beverages to 7.4 percent from 7.9 percent; and restaurants and accommodation services to 8.3 percent from 8.6 percent.
As of March 2023, the country’s employment rate was at 95.3 percent, higher than the reported employment rate in the same month last year at 94.2 percent and in the previous month at 95.2 percent.
“Sa ngayon, ‘yung growth rate natin ay maganda pa rin at siguro isa na sa pinakamaganda sa buong mundo ang ating growth rate. So lumalaki nang lumalaki at sumisigla ang ating ekonomiya,” the President said.
(Right now, our growth rate is still good and maybe our growth rate is one of the best in the world. So our economy is growing and growing and growing.)
“Kaya’t mukhang tama ang ating ginagawa. Ipagpatuloy natin ang ginagawa natin para naman makita natin na bumalik tayo sa magandang sitwasyon ulit,” he added.
(So it looks like we are doing the right thing. Let’s continue what we are doing so that we can see that we return to a good situation again.)
As of the first quarter of the year, the Philippine Gross Domestic Product posted a growth of 6.4 percent. (SunStar Philippines)