The impact of the recent weather disturbances on agriculture is expected to push the domestic inflation rate for November 2025 to between 1.1 percent to 1.9 percent.
The previous month’s level is steady at 1.7 percent.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), in a statement Friday, said prices of fish, rice, and fruits rose this month after the devastation from several typhoons.
“Higher electricity and oil prices, as well as the depreciation of the peso, could also contribute to price pressures,” it said.
The BSP, however, sees these factors to be countered by “lower prices of meat and vegetables.”
“Going forward, the BSP will continue to monitor evolving domestic and international developments affecting the outlook for inflation and growth in line with its data-dependent approach to monetary policy formulation,” it added.
Earlier, BSP Officer-in-Charge Dennis Lapid said they had recent surveys for the professional economists which showed that inflation might be a little below target for this year but there will be a gradual pickup towards (about 3 percent) for next year.
“The other way we’re looking at expectations is in terms of the distribution of the expectations or the future inflation number that comes up in our surveys, for example, the consumer expectations survey,” he said.
“So if you could demand, if you could sort of somehow plot the responses we get in terms of a bell curve, you can see the bell curves are slowly moving closer towards 2 percent and away from 4 percent,” he added.
The BSP’s final policy meeting for the year is scheduled on Dec. 11.
In October, the central bank signaled space for further easing as concerns grew over the economic impact of ongoing corruption issues involving major flood-control projects and other infrastructures.
PNA PHOTO