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By APD writer Melo M. Acuña
MANILA, Jan.18 (APD) – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that headline inflation slowed down after its peak in Q3 of 2018.
In a briefing at shortly before midday today, Sector-in-Charge for Monetary and Economic Sector Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. said headline inflation moderated to 5.9 percent for the fourth quarter from 6.2 percent in the previous quarter which indicates “inflation has reached its peak in Q3 2018.”
Sector-in-Charge Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. (center) from the BSP's Monetary and Economics Sector said inflation eased during the 4th Quarter of 2018.
“This brought the full year average inflation to 5.2 percent, which is above the National Government’s (NG) announced target range of 3.0 percent ± 1.0 percentage point (ppt) for the year,” Dakila added.
During the briefing, he added inflation expectations re higher for 2018 but lower for 2019-2020 as results of the BSP’s survey of private sector economists for December 2018 showed that mean inflation forecast for 2018 was high relative to the results in September 2018, while mean inflation forecasts were lower for 2019 and 2020.
He added the survey on private sector economists for December 2018 showed that the mean inflation forecast for 2018 rose to 5.4 percent from 5.3 percent in the September 2018 survey.
“By contrast, mean inflation forecasts for 2019 decreased to 4.1 percent while forecasts for 2020 decreased to 3.8 percent from previous surveys.
Mr. Dakila said though analysts expects inflation to remain e3levated in the near term, their assessment of the balance of risks to the inflation outlook shifted toward the downside.
“Possible downside risks include decline global oil prices, easing prices of food and non-food items, implementation of non-monetary measures to address domestic food supply issues including rice importation, the recent and expectations of further policy rate hikes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the recovery of the Philippine peso against the US dollar.
However, it was reported the domestic economy grew at a slower pace with its Q3 growth at 6.1 percent.
“This is lower than the 6.2 percent expansion a quarter ago and 7.2 percent growth a year ago,” Mr. Dakila added.
He explained on then expenditure side, the slowdown in Q3 2018 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was due to lower household consumption. The government spending accelerated while gross fixed capital formation continued to grow at double-digit rate.
On the production side, the lower GDP growth for the quarter was attributed to the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing and the industry sectors.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
