Inflation to settle within gov’t’s target in Q4

FILE: Several customers select the vegetables and other food items on display at a stall at the Vcast Market in Caloocan City on Tuesday (August 3, 2021). People are allowed to go out but need to follow the protocol on a heightened health safety protocol of the government. (PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)

MANILA – Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno is confident that headline inflation will settle within the government’s target by the fourth quarter of the year.

“Inflation has actually gone down for the fifth consecutive month and we expect it to be within the target range of 2 to 4 percent by the fourth quarter of this year,” Diokno said in a television interview on Monday.

Headline inflation decelerated for the fifth consecutive month in June, settling at 5.4 percent.

This is significantly lower than the 8.7 percent recorded in January this year.

“We’ll hit that 2 to 4 percent target range in the fourth quarter,” Diokno said.

Diokno said inflation might even hit below 2 percent in the first quarter of 2024.

“We expect to overshoot the inflation target to below 2 percent by the first quarter of 2024,” he said.

For the whole of 2024, Diokno expects inflation to settle at 3.0 percent.

Meanwhile, Diokno said the Philippines continues to be a good investment destination.

“In our conversation with foreign investors abroad, I think there’s a lot of interest. As you know, the Philippines right now is the fastest growing country in this part of the world,” he said.

Diokno also cited the government’s move to allow 100 percent ownership of public services in the country.

“We tell them that at the height of the pandemic, we didn’t sit idly by and wait for the virus to subside. We opened the economy, passed the law which opened shipping, telco (telecommunications) and other areas, including renewable energy so that makes the Philippines a very attractive place,” he said.

“Given our track record, I think the Philippines can be a good investment destination.”

Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte last year, the Public Services Act allowed 100 percent ownership of telecommunications, railways, expressways, airports and shipping industries.