The national government, through the Philippine Statistics Agency, announced that the inflation rate in 2024 reached 3.2 percent and the economic growth rate was 5.6 percent. The inflation rate for food was 4.4 percent.
These statistics can be looked at from different angles.
Overall, this can be viewed as a moderate performance because the difference between inflation, or the rate at which prices increase, and growth is only 2.4 percent.
Families in the higher income levels can withstand high inflation, those in the middle and lower classes suffer the most.
This is not surprising. With the price of food still high, the negative effects of the low production and the high inflation are devastating for the poor.
In fact, this is admitted by the national government through its widespread billion-peso distribution of cash dole-outs such as the AYUDA program that has now become a byword everywhere with some people expecting an AYUDA every month, without doing anything productive to deserve getting this cash benefit.
This is a sorry situation. People become complacent and with little motivation to work harder and be more productive because an AYUDA is coming their way.
When combatting inflation, the continued high price of rice is a persistent issue that the national government has been unable to handle sufficiently.
With the budget for food around half of the budget of low-income groups it is no wonder they are suffering the most.
So far government responses have been unable to control inflation, particularly of food commodities,
This reminds me of the recent executive order issued by President Donald Trump of the USA that mandated all agencies to help reduce inflation. There is no similar executive order from our President. Much of the weight on solving this problem is placed on the Department of Agriculture. Poor DA. The price of any commodity sold on the market is influenced by the actions of many agencies, and not only by the DA.
Any deficiency on the part of any government agency affects the prices of goods. The need to reduce inflation should therefore be in the explicit mandate of all government agencies.
The government bureaucracy is so compartmentalized and divided into sectors that to solve any problem confronting the nation, all agencies must do their share of the task. If any agency is not conscious of this, then minimizing the increase in food prices will remain a dream, an unfulfilled political promise.
This should include specific tasks, not only policy pronouncements which are mere lip service: words only, inadequate action, no analysis of effects, no effort to improve performance to serve the people in a better way and from their perspective.
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