Vendors tend to their stalls at a market in Manila. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez says inflation will likely taper off towards the end of 2018. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA -- Inflation will like taper off "in the closing months of the year" as government responded "decisively" to tame price increases, the head of President Rodrigo Duterte's economic team said Wednesday.
Despite "elevated" inflation, the Philippine economy is still growing at one of the fastest clips in the world, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez told a business forum in Davao City.
"The government has responded decisively," Dominguez said. "We expect inflation to taper off in the closing months of the year."
The consumer price index steadied at 6.7 percent in October, the same as the previous month, but still at its highest in nearly a decade, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas hiked the benchmark borrowing rate by a cumulative 1.75 percentage points this year in the face of rising prices. During its last policy meeting earlier this month, it lowered its inflation forecast for 2019.
inflation, economy, consumer, consumer price index, interest rates, Gross Domestic Product