Gov’t striving to keep inflation low, generate more jobs

THE GOVERNMENT will double its efforts to further ease inflation and open more job opportunities for Filipinos, Malacañang said Wednesday.

Palace Press Officer and Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro gave the assurance in a press briefing, as she welcomed the significant decline in inflation rate and the opening of over 2,000 jobs in various industries.

“Ayon sa National Economic and Development Authority, ang patuloy na pagbaba ng inflation rate ay indikasyon na epektibo ang mga hakbang na ginagawa ng gobyerno kontra sa tinatawag na inflationary pressures (According to the National Economic and Development Authority, the continued decline in the inflation rate is an indication that the measures taken by the government against so-called inflationary pressures are effective),” Castro said.

“Sisikapin din ng ahensiya na panatilihing mababa ang inflation rate at tugunan agad ang mga posibleng pagtaas ng ibang commodities (The agency will also strive to keep the inflation rate low and promptly respond to possible increases in other commodities),” she added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country's headline inflation rate eased to 2.1 percent in February, down from 2.9 percent in January and the lowest recorded since September 2024 (1.9 percent).

The downward trend in inflation was driven by a slowdown in both food (2.6 percent from 4 percent) and non-food inflation (1.7 percent from 2.2 percent).

Rice registered a sharper deflation of 4.9 percent from 2.3 percent, with prices decreasing since July 2024 on a month-on-month basis amid easing international prices and reduced tariffs.

Vegetable inflation decelerated to 7.1 percent from 21.1 percent in the previous month.

More jobs

Castro also welcomed as “good news” the opening of more than 2,000 jobs from various industries, including information and communications technology (ICT), aviation-tourism and service sectors.

Clark Development Corporation Communications Manager Astrud Aguinaldo said there are 2,280 job vacancies from 30 investors.

She said job seekers may visit www.jobs@clark.com to register and see the available jobs.

“At mula doon, makikita ng mga investors ang inyong profile at from there, puwede na kayong kontakin (And from there, investors will see your profile and from there, they can contact you),” Aguinaldo said. (Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos)