Economist-lawmaker Joey Salceda has warned that between the poor and the rich households, the lower income consumers will be more affected by the weak performance of the Philippine peso against the United States dollar.

Salceda made this remark following his Friday's prediction that the Philippine peso could hit as high as P68 against the US dollar.

The Albay solon, known in the lower chamber as a figure cruncher, explained his pessimistic assessment.

"The bottom 30 percent of households in terms of income spend 58.2 percent of their total expenditures on food. And 24.9 percent of total food consumption in the country is imported," said Salceda, chairperson of the House Ways and Means Committee.

He explained that a peso depreciation of 25 percent increases their total spending by at least 3.64 percent because of food alone. While, second round effects, or the effects of increases of imported input costs on domestically produced output, could also pressure household budgets further.

"The upper 70 percent only spend 39.5 percent of their income on food. So, the same depreciation will only hit them by 2.47 percent of expenses. And of course, they earn more and have more space for savings," Salceda said.

"Fuel accounts for around 30 percent of transport and energy costs, on which the poor spend around 15 percent of their income. So, you're looking at another 1.13 percent increase in those areas due to a 25 percent peso depreciation, which we are on track to reach year to date by the coming weeks," he added.

According to the solon, the peso has already fallen by 14.7 percent year to date. However, from its peak in 2021, the peso has declined by 24 percent.

Moreover, he added that high-income households could keep their money in dollars while lower-income families barely have any savings.

However, he stressed that the solution for it is a mix of policy and program interventions.

Salceda suggested that the "Big 4" service sector revenue generators — business process outsourcing, foreign-employed independent contractors, overseas Foreign workers, and the tourism industry — need to be supported because doing so will enable them to gain from strengthening the dollar.