If there is someone to blame for the high prices of goods in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said that that person would be United States (US) President Donald Trump.
“Inflation is dahil ‘yan kay (because of) Trump. When Trump raised ‘yung mga tariff niya pati banned other items, nagkalokoloko (When Trump raised his tariff, even banned other items, things got chaotic),” Duterte said in his speech before the Filipino community in Jordan on Friday, September 7.
The Trump administration has earlier imposed tariffs on some Chinese goods due to China’s “theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices.” Responding to this, Beijing also slapped tariffs on US goods.
While he did not further explain how this economic policy affected the rising of commodity prices in the Philippines, Duterte said the government is doing something about the inflation.
“I am not apologizing. There is really inflation in the Philippines and we are trying to control it,” the President said.
Duterte, who previously admitted that he is not an economic expert, let his economic managers address the issue as they have more knowledge about economics than him.
“I’m no better than the rest of the — mas bright ‘yun sila (They are brighter than I am),” he said.
On Wednesday, September 5, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s inflation rate climbed to a record-high of 6.4 percent in August. This exceeded the forecast of the Department of Finance (DOF) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) which was only at 5.9 percent.
Despite this, Malacañang on Friday, said Filipinos have no reason to panic.
“Hinay-hinay lang po tayo. Normal pa po ‘yan (Let’s just calm down. This is still normal). It’s higher than usual, but it’s nothing to be worried about,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said in a press briefing in Amman, Jordan.
The Palace official also said the administration is already addressing the issue on inflation, but he stressed that the problem will not be solved in one night.
“It will not happen overnight, kasi itong inflation naman po, maraming masyadong pera na umiikot sa ating ekonomiya ngayon (because this inflation, there is a large amount of money circulating in our economy right now). At the same time, the Central Bank has to spend taking steps to rein-in interest rates, which will also have an impact on inflation,” he stressed.