Salceda: Food prices to rise by P3 to P5 amid weak peso

House Ways and Means panel Chairperson Joey Salceda on Friday said that food prices would increase by P3 to P5 amid the depreciating value of the Philippine peso against the US dollar due to the country's significant dependence on imports.

Salceda made the forecast as he also predicted that the Philippine peso, which is now P58.99 to one US dollar, might sink as low as P65 to US $1.

"It would increase by P3 to P5... bigas, corn, trigo, halos lahat. Yung buong kanta ng 'Bahay Kubo,' 'yung lahat ng halaman doon imported na ngayon at smuggled pa. Twenty percent of the country's food supply is imported," Salceda said in a CNN Philippines interview.

Having said that, Salceda said that the government should ensure that the country's food supply was stable.

"Wala ka na masyadong magagawa [on sinking peso], dapat tanggapin mo yan as a given... In crisis periods like this, the first thing that you should assure is siguraduhin ang ating food supply or food security," Salceda said.

Salceda, in a separate statement, made the following suggestions:

• lowering food cost by increasing agricultural production for key staples (mainly rice and corn)
• maximizing emerging competitive advantages (poultry, livestock)
• optimizing export products (coconut, cacao, mango, banana, pineapple)
• removing barriers to efficient land use through lifting ownership and size restrictions, among others.

Inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of consumer goods and services, slowed slightly to 6.3% in August to snap a five-month uptrend amid the slower increase in transport and food costs, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

August's 6.3% inflation was slower than the 6.4% rate recorded in July, but faster than the 4.4% rate posted in August 2021. — DVM, GMA News