DTI: No shocking price increase even as Christmas draws near

There will be no unexpectedly steep price increases on goods even as the Christmas season draws near, the Department of Trade and Industry said on Wednesday.

 

"We don't expect a big increase [on prices this season]. It will all be within the inflation rate," Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said at the sidelines of a congressional hearing on the P2.6-trillion proposed national budget for 2015.
 

Inflation rate for July was pegged at 4.9 percent. 

 

Domingo said the price increases would particularly affect Noche Buena products such cheese and canned fruit cocktail.

He said that prices of agricultural products like rice and garlic remained stable. He cited that garlic prices were currently at P90 per kilo. 

 

Last June, garlic prices increased to P200 to P300 per kilo. 

 

Domingo said that the DTI was helping the National Bureau of Investigation in ite investigation into the cause of the price increases. 

 

As for rice, the Trade Secretary noted that the rice prices have stabilized as imports arrive.

 

"'Yung mga iba pang agricultural products, ang estimate ng DA (Department of Agriculture) magiging steady nga o bababa," he added. 

 

Meanwhile, Domingo revealed that canned milk prices increased by five to thirteen percent because price hikes in the international market.

During the budget hearing, he explained that the 95 percent of the country's dairy requirement are imported from New Zealand. 

 

In the same hearing, Undersecretary Vic Dimagiba noted that candle prices will increase prices by 2.5 percent as paraffin wax prices in the world market went up. 

 

Higher prices on candles will start on September 12, Dimagiba added.

 

This is the first the in two years that candle prices have increased, Domingo said. —NB, GMA News