{"id":169648,"date":"2018-07-07T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T04:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=169648"},"modified":"2018-07-07T00:01:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T04:01:24","slug":"economic-expansion-puts-upward-pressure-on-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/07\/economic-expansion-puts-upward-pressure-on-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic expansion puts upward pressure on prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Dominguez said the tax reform law increased the purchasing power of consumers, noting the increase in profits of fast food giants. (Photo courtesy of Sec. Martin Andanar via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Friday said the country\u2019s higher-than-expected inflation rate could have been caused by an expanding economy and robust consumer demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile slightly elevated, the inflation rate during the first six months of the year is understandable. Economies expanding at a fast clip tend to put pressure on supply. This is particularly true of our economic performance,\u201d he said during the pre-State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) forum.<\/p>\n

Dominguez said the tax reform law increased the purchasing power of consumers, noting the increase in profits of fast food giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure they are buying more gadgets, foods. In fact, restaurant inflation is going up because people are going more to restaurants,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The finance chief said the massive importation of capital goods needed for the \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d infrastructure program also increased the country\u2019s trade deficit and weakened the peso.<\/p>\n

Dominguez noted the rice situation also pushed prices to abnormal levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these factors are permanent infirmities. But without the tax reform and the infrastructure program that it is funding, we will continue to suffer from high cost of production and transportation. With the tax reform and better infrastructure, the road to higher productivity, and thus lower and stable inflation is within reach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Inflation rate accelerated to a five-year high of 5.2 percent in June 2018.<\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s figure brought average inflation rate during the first six months of the year to 4.3 percent, above the target range of 2 to 4 percent for the year but still within the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee\u2019s forecast of 4.0 to 4.5 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that with the relaxation of oil prices in the global market, the consolidation of the peso\u2019s exchange rate, and the normalization of rice supply, we can pull back the inflation rate to within target range,\u201d Dominguez added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Friday said the country\u2019s higher-than-expected inflation rate could have been caused by an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":167421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[13825],"class_list":["post-169648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-carlos-dominguez-iii","mauthors-leslie-gatpolintan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}