Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan assured the public on Sunday that the Marcos administration is doing more to stop the prices of essential goods from increasing.

The concurrent National Economic and Development Authority, or NEDA, chief made the remarks in reaction to a poll by a research group on Saturday that showed three out of four Filipinos were unhappy with the government’s steps to ease the country’s headline inflation.

“We recognize the importance and urgency of tackling the challenges identified in the survey,” Balisacan said in a statement.

“The administration is accelerating efforts to manage rising prices of basic commodities, particularly rice, while attracting significant foreign investments to create more and better jobs,” he added.

Balisacan contextualized the current situation by recalling the Philippine economy’s recovery from the pandemic-induced contraction in 2020. He pointed out that while the setback was significant, per capita Gross National Income returned to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2023.

Growth leader

The total income of the country is divided by the number of people living there to get the per capita GNI. This number shows how much money each Filipino makes on average.

Notably, Balisacan said the Philippine economy outperformed its Asian peers with a GDP growth rate of 5.6 percent in 2023, one of the fastest in the region.

Balisacan acknowledged the inflation challenges faced in early 2023 but emphasized the success of interventions in bringing it down to 2.8 percent by January 2024, the lowest since October 2020.

Additionally, the labor market showed positive signs, with the unemployment rate reaching a historic low of 3.1 percent in December 2023 and underemployment easing.

“The Cabinet has taken to heart the President’s directives by ensuring that the necessary policies are in place: we are facilitating massive investments in physical and human capital to create better jobs and improve our economy’s competitiveness while deploying the entire arsenal of policy tools to make food available, accessible and affordable to the Filipino people,” Balisacan said.