Timely and adequate importation is one of the short-term measures to keep food inflation down, the National Economic and Development Authority said Friday.
Importation would also fill domestic supply shortfalls, said NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon during a meeting of the inter-agency committee on inflation.
NEDA is also proposing the positioning of rice buffer stocks during the El Niño dry spell; strengthening the biosecurity and hog repopulation programs; improving and expanding the Kadiwa program to directly connect producers and consumers; and speeding up the distribution of targeted subsidies to farmers and fishermen.
Edillon said import decisions should account for the expected leandomestic production period and estimated transit time of commodities from the source country to address domestic supply gaps.
NEDA also presented three medium-term measures to manage food inflation. These are:
• Boosting the productivity and resiliency of the agriculture sector;
• Promoting private investment in facilities, transport, and logistics systems to bring safe and nutritious food closer to consumers; and
• Pushing for the passage of critical reforms such as the Livestock, Poultry and Dairy (LPD) Competitiveness and Development Act.
“In the medium-term, boosting local agriculture sector entails improving access to credit and insurance, integrating climate and disaster risks in plans and programs, developing and mainstreaming early warning systems, organizing small farmers to promote clustering, boosting local capabilities on production of agriculture and fisheriesinputs, and promoting the adoption of appropriate technologies,” NEDA said.
Finance Undersecretary Zeno Abenoja also presented four short-term interventions to mitigate non-food inflation. These are the implementation of demand management measures; protection of vulnerable sectors through fuel subsidies and targeted cash transfers; a careful review of wage and transport petition hikes; and timely and continued monitoring of non-food inflation indicators.
Measures to manage demand include energy conservation and efficiency proposals to reduce energy consumption through effective load management that could result in lower power demand. This also includes the promotion of responsible water consumption.
Abenoja also emphasized the need to carefully consider wage and transport fare hike petitions to ensure that inflation is not exacerbated by sudden increases.
The inter-agency task force was formed in March as a measure to fight inflation. The group, chaired by NEDA and the Department of Finance, serves as an advisory body to the government’s Economic Development Group on measures to keep inflation within the targeted range.
Members of the committee include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Trade and Industry. The DOF also serves as the committee’s secretariat.
Inflation reached a 14-year high of 8.7 percent in January 2023 but eased to 8.6 percent in February and 7.6 percent in March. Despite the slowdown, inflation remained elevated and is one of the stickiest in the region.