The economy

One of the worries of many Filipinos is the economy.

- TONY LOPEZ

The prices of essential commodities. The availability of staple foods like rice. The growth rate of the economy or GDP or the value of production of goods and services in a given year, or during 2025.And whether the economy will grow at a good enough rate despite the largest corruption scandal in history, the P1.7 trillion in flood control money of the past 10 years stolen by greedy senators, congressmen, DPWH engineers and their private contractor cohorts. The idea is that if the P1.7 trillion was stolen and that stolen money should have gone to infrastructure and infrastructure spending is a great boost to economic growth, what happens now to economic growth?

Well, the answers are mostly pieces of good news. On inflation or the rate of increase in prices of goods monitored by the so-called consumer price index (CPI), inflation has been cut by half, from 3.4 percent in January-September 2024 to 1.7 percent in January-September 2025. Inflation averaged 3.2 percent in the whole of 2024, 6.0 percent in 2023 and 5.8 percent in 2022. If you had P100 in 2022 and inflation was 5.8 percent, the P100 could buy only P94.2 worth of goods and services. A 6 percent inflation in 2024 means P100 could buy only P94 worth of goods and services. A 1.7 percent inflation in 2025 means P100 pesos can buy P98.3 worth of goods and services. Lower inflation means higher purchasing power.

As to rice, the Department of Agriculture, upon President Marcos' order, has delivered on its promise to cut the price of rice to P20 per kilo, half the average in 2022.