MANILA: Inflation is the most urgent concern of Filipino adults, reported Xinhua, based on details from a national survey released on Monday.
Pulse Asia Research Inc. said in its poll conducted in December last year that 72 per cent of the 1,200 respondents identify inflation as an urgent issue that needs to be immediately addressed by the government.
Out of the 16 issues presented to the respondents, controlling inflation “is the only issue considered as urgent by most adults,” the survey said.
Increasing the pay of workers is the second most often-mentioned urgent national concern, followed by creating more jobs, reducing poverty, as well as fighting graft and corruption in government, the poll showed.
Year-on-year inflation in the Philippines decelerated from a high of 8.7 per cent in January 2023 to 3.9 per cent in December. The full-year inflation for 2023 stood at 6 per cent – higher than the 2022 inflation rate of 5.8 per cent.
The latest Philippine Statistics Authority data showed that inflation for most commodity groups slowed down or retained their previous rates in December 2023.
However, rice inflation rose to 19.6 per cent in December from 15.8 per cent in November. It was also the most significant contributor to that month’s inflation with 1.7 percentage points, followed by food and beverages services and housing rentals with 0.5 percentage points each.
“Inflation is on the mend,” Philippine Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a statement on Monday, adding that inflation has been decelerating despite price pressure being a global issue in 2023. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
