President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. believes imports are the "main drivers of inflation", as he lamented that the rise in prices of commodities has been "running rampant and out of control."
The Chief Executive made the remarks during the 11th Arangkada Philippines Forum 2022 on Tuesday, pointing out that the Philippine government is already identifying the areas of the economy that drove inflation to reach 8 percent in November.
"We just received the poor news from the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) that in November, we hit eight percent. And we are now trying to identify the areas of the economy that are the main drivers of that inflation," Marcos said during his speech.
"The main drivers of that inflation, unfortunately, are still imported. So, again, import substitution is still a good idea not only for foreign exchange reserves but also so that we can keep our inflation rate down," he added.
Prices of local commodities continued to increase quicker than targeted last month, hitting the highest in 14 years.
Inflation rose to 8 percent in November—the fastest since the 9.1 inflation in November 2008.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has projected a range of 7.4 to 8.2 percent inflation.