File photo shows President Ferdinand 鈥淏ongbong鈥� Marcos Jr.聽 in a conversation with Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Special Assistant to the President Secretary Antonio 鈥淎nton鈥� Lagdameo, Jr. during the briefing and site inspection of the Clark Multi-Specialty Medical Center at the Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga.聽
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has made progress in reducing the inflation and unemployment rates, as well as the price of rice, according to House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.聽
In a statement issued on Sunday, Romaldez said that the current administration is 鈥渘ot there yet鈥� but has already made 鈥済reat strides鈥� in achieving some of Marcos鈥檚 objectives as stated in his first Station of the Nation Address last year.聽
鈥淎s we鈥檝e already seen, the inflation rate is going down so tama 鈥榶ung direksyon pero hindi pa talaga tayo nakaabot sa punto na mababa na talaga ang presyo ng mga bilihin. We want to get there, that鈥檚 the direction,鈥� Romualdez said.聽
(As we鈥檝e already seen, the inflation rate is going down, so the direction is correct, but we have yet to reach the point where the price of goods is meager. We want to get there; that鈥檚 the direction.)
鈥淭he unemployment rate is going down pero marami pa rin ang walang trabaho. So while we are not yet there, 鈥榶ung direksyon po ay tama,鈥� he added.聽
(The unemployment rate is decreasing, but many are still unemployed, so while we are not yet there, we鈥檙e in the right direction.)
Citing the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Romualdez said inflation continued to slow down until last month, settling at 5.4 percent in June from a high of 8.7 percent in January.聽
He emphasized that this was the lowest rate over the last 13 months, from 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March, 6.6 percent in April, to 6.1 percent in May.
Romualdez said that separate PSA data revealed that the unemployment rate continued to decline in April, dropping to 4.5 percent from 5.7 percent in the same month last year and 4.7 percent in March this year.聽
Likewise, the lawmaker said that the current administration is also slowly achieving its goal to reduce the price of rice to P20 per kilo, adding that rice in the Kadiwa ng Ani at Kita stores under the chief executive鈥檚 office is being sold at P25 per kilo.