Espenilla rules out high inflation

Monetary authorities do not anticipate the need to deal with runaway inflation in the coming months even if the prices of commodities and goods in markets across the Philippines will likely trend higher.

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., while price pressures were to persist for perhaps a month or two down the line, in no way should inflation range seven percent, for example.

“We are not seeing seven percent,” he said on Thursday.

He said forecast models show inflation, or the rate of change in prices, were to persist on a path higher than where it is at present over the next one or two months.

But he flatly rejected the notion that headline inflation, which has trekked from only 3.4 percent in January but breached the 4-percent ceiling by March, should even approach seven percent.

“Based on our forecast, we are not seeing 6 percent,” Espenilla said.

At the last rate-setting meeting of the Monetary Board on 9 August, the BSP acknowledged that price pressures will stay elevated over one or two months but brushed aside prospects inflation will approximate seven or six percent.