Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno: “[T]he President’s disbelief at the 6.1% June 2022 inflation rate figure was misunderstood.”
BENJAMIN DIOKNO — The Finance Secretary said that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s disbelief at the 6.1% June inflation rate figure was “misunderstood”.
The President appeared to have cast doubt on the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that the inflation rate in June 2022 reached 6.1% when prices were compared to the same month in last year.
On Tuesday, the President said in a press briefing that he “will have to disagree with” the 6.1% June 2022 inflation rate figure, saying “we are not that high”.
“I think that I will have to… I will have to disagree with that number. We are not that high. We have crossed the .. our targets were less 4 percent or less, unfortunately, it looks like we may cross that… cross that threshold. Tatawid tayo sa 4 percent,” the President said.
Following his remark, PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said that the agency is standing by its report.
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On Wednesday, Diokno clarified the President’s remark expressing disagreement with the 6.1% June inflation rate reported by the PSA.
“He was referring to it as a full-year figure when in fact the year-to-date (January to June) average inflation rate was actually 4.4 percent,” the Finance Secretary said.
Diokno added that the President was correct in saying that inflation was a worldwide problem.
He also said that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects inflation “will remain elevated in the next few months” but will slow down to 4.2% in 2023 and back to the target rate of 3.3% by 2024.
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