Government continues to monitor
prices of food and other basic commodities to protect consumers, especially
those living in calamity-affected areas, from unjustified price increases.
In the calamity-affected areas,
government is restoring supply lines
disrupted by typhoon Yolanda and the earthquake to stabilize prices of food
items and eventually bring these back to pre-disaster levels.
As noted by NEDA, December prices
are seasonally high, due to Christmas spending.
Hence, NSO reported that headline inflation for the whole country
increased from 3.3 percent in November 2013 to 4.1 per cent in December
2013. In areas outside of the NCR
(including Eastern and Central Visayas), headline inflation were even higher at
3.8 percent in November 2013 and 4.6 per cent in December 2013.
It must be pointed out, however,
that year-to-date headline inflation rate for the entire country as of December
2013 was 3 per cent, or at the low end of the 3-5 per cent annual inflation
projections of the government’s Development Budget Coordination Committee
(DBCC).###
