Inflation, exchange rates tackled during Marcos’ meeting with economic team

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. met the country's economic managers on Tuesday and discussed inflation as well as the exchange and interest rates.

In a tweet, Marcos said the policy directions for the rest of the year and the first quarter of next year were discussed, with inflation as the top priority.

"We will continue to use interest rates to mitigate the effects," Marcos said.

"We may have to defend the Peso in the coming months, but the overall forecast is that we are still doing better than other countries in terms of inflation, though economic developments are still anticipated," Marcos added.

At a Palace briefing, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Arsenio Balisacan said they discussed the measures that need to be done to ensure that the country is on track in achieving its short-term and medium-term goals.

"We did and we tackled the short term challenges that we have discussed and this pertain to the current inflation, the exchange rate and interest rates and what we need to do to assure our people that we are on track and we are not detracted by these developments in achieving our short-term and medium-term goals," said Balisacan.

"We are looking at the short-term issues, the continuing inflation and ensuring that as we address these short-term issues, we are mindful that we’ll not abandon the medium-term goals and we will make sure that we are on track toward economic recovery," he added.

Balisacan also said through the Medium-Term Fiscal Program and Philippine Development Plan (PDP) framed by the 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda, the government has developed critical policy and legislative priorities to address the economy's short-term and medium-term issues in the next six years.

"The PDP's targeted completion before the end of the year assures us that we will have a robust roadmap for navigating short-term challenges and uncertainties," Balisacan said, adding that it contains strategic actions to address constraints in the country's food, energy, and transportation systems.

"The plan shall include measures to strengthen the economy's foundation for more and higher-quality job creation by addressing the most binding constraints to business investment and expansion in growth drivers such as manufacturing and agriculture, tourism, IT-BPOs, construction, and the creative industries," he added.

According to the NEDA chief, the government is also monitoring economic developments "so that we can deploy our monetary tools like the interest rate for example and how we can intervene in the financial market to tame, including the depreciation of the peso."

"But again as we do seek for solutions to the short-term challenges, we are very careful that we do not compromise our medium-term goals. We just have to put the economy to a higher growth trajectory so that we can achieve more jobs, high quality jobs and reduce poverty rapidly.  That’s the overall architecture of the plan," Balisacan said.

Asked if the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) were discussed during the meeting to determine if it is economically viable to halt their operations, Balisacan said: "No, we did not. We just focused on the very crucial issue on inflation where majority of our farmers, our population, are facing." 

Meanwhile, Marcos also had a meeting with officials from the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).

Created under Republic Act No. 11363 or the Philippine Space Act, the PhilSA is mandated to address all issues and activities related to space science and technology application.

Department of Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum Jr., Department of National Defense Officer-in-Charge Senior Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr., and PhilSA Director General Joel Joseph Marciano Jr. were present during the meeting. — RSJ, GMA News