Controlling rising commodity prices is the top “urgent national concern” today, based on a survey by OCTA Research Group presented Tuesday at a media forum.
In a survey conducted in March, 52 percent of respondents said the government should address the price hike of commodities.
A second urgent national concern was wage increases, which were answered by 43 percent. This was followed by the availability of affordable food such as rice, vegetables, and meat-with 41 percent.
“It’s an important issue that the government has to deal with. It’s likely to be the same sentiment for the incoming administration. You’ll notice an upward trend with issues related to inflation. This been a trend for a year now,” said OCTA fellow Ranjit Rye.
According to George Siy, head of the Integrated Development Studies Institute, the effect of the war between Russia and Ukraine is not direct. Still, it has a significant impact when it comes to inflation or the speed of the price hike.
The chain reaction war began with the rising price of the petroleum product, fertilizer, and agricultural products it uses.
So analysts expect that the next administration will prioritize providing subsidies to agriculture.
Lowering commodity prices main national concern: survey
“The government has given the idea that they might decide to subsidize rice. If wheat goes up, bread goes up, gasoline goes up, we’ll have to find alternative sources in food,” said Siy.
“We can already start looking for ways to revive our agricultural sector. Some parts would have to be subsidized by the government,” he added.
It will also wait until the start of the administration of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., whether the distribution of aid to the poor will continue.
“We’re looking at clearer set of interventions for the poor. Social safety nets, I think, are the key things for the first 100 days. The stimulus package, how it is going to look like,” said Rye.
It is also challenging for the incoming administration to streamline tax collection to fund government programs.
This Tuesday, vegetable prices rose in some markets in conjunction with the implementation of another big-time oil price hike.
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