The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday said that the country’s inflation was likely to project within the 7.8% to 8.6% range in December due to the upward pressures from higher electricity rates and agricultural commodities prices.
The BSP added that they will continue monitoring developments to prevent the further broadening of price pressures, this after inflation hit 8% in November. The Philippines’ Statistics Authority (PSA) will release inflation data in the first week of January.
The BSP had expected inflation to have reached its peak in October, but the effects of destructive typhoons further jacked up the rate of increases in prices of basic goods and services to go even higher in November.
In early December, BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said that the central bank’s latest forecast puts the peak in the month of December.
He said that higher electricity rates, the skyrocket prices of agricultural commodities, elevated meat and fish products, and higher prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are presumed to have pushed inflation upward this month.
“Upward pressure from prices of these goods countered the downward pressure from lower prices of petroleum products and rice as well as the appreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar.” the BSP said.