AFP, Manila :
Philippine inflation jumped to an almost 10-year high in September, data showed Friday, putting pressure on President Rodrigo Duterte to act as the cost of food and fuel hit the country’s poor in the pocket.
Consumer prices have risen every month this year, with food surging further after Typhoon Mangkhut, the world’s most powerful storm in 2018, smashed into the country’s northern agricultural heartland in mid-September.
Increases have been powered by a collision of factors including Duterte’s massive spending on a broad infrastructure building effort, climbing oil prices and weak farm output.
Consumer price increases accelerated to 6.7 percent, from 6.4 percent in August, in the steepest climb since February 2009, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.
“We… understand that many are feeling the hit of a faster inflation rate, particularly those who toil so hard just to keep up,” Duterte’s economics team said.
The tens of millions who get by on less than $2 per day in the Philippines have been especially hard hit by the increase.
Philippine inflation jumped to an almost 10-year high in September, data showed Friday, putting pressure on President Rodrigo Duterte to act as the cost of food and fuel hit the country’s poor in the pocket.
Consumer prices have risen every month this year, with food surging further after Typhoon Mangkhut, the world’s most powerful storm in 2018, smashed into the country’s northern agricultural heartland in mid-September.
Increases have been powered by a collision of factors including Duterte’s massive spending on a broad infrastructure building effort, climbing oil prices and weak farm output.
Consumer price increases accelerated to 6.7 percent, from 6.4 percent in August, in the steepest climb since February 2009, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.
“We… understand that many are feeling the hit of a faster inflation rate, particularly those who toil so hard just to keep up,” Duterte’s economics team said.
The tens of millions who get by on less than $2 per day in the Philippines have been especially hard hit by the increase.
