Palace says higher oil prices pushed June inflation faster

Malacañang on Wednesday blamed the two-year high inflation rate recorded last month to oil price increases. “Certainly the high inflation was due to oil prices, but since oil prices are tapering off we would expect a lowering, hopefully, a lowering of inflation rate as well," said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda at a press briefing. Inflation accelerated by 5.2 percent in June also because of the re-basing done by the National Statistics Office, he added. “If you’re basing on the 2000 prices, it would be 4.6 percent. So, that’s really just a re-basing of the year, so that’s why the inflation rate is 5.2 now but that’s not an apple to apple comparison," he said. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would be monitoring the figures “and would do the necessary actions if there would be any increase in inflation rate," according to the presidential spokesperson. Higher yearly increases in alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices were recorded last months, the NSO noted, saying that the following price indices also rose: clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; transport, recreation and culture; education; restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services. From January to June, the Philippine inflation rate stood at 4.7 percent or near the higher end of the 3-percent to 5-percent BSP target. — Amita Legaspi/VS, GMA News