MANILA — Rice prices in the Philippines are expected to decrease by 20 percent in September, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Monday.

“We expect rice prices to go down by 20 percent in September. This would entail an increase in production and reduction in tariffs,” the Finance chief said during the Philippine Economic Briefing in Pasay.

“I think we have a game plan in place as far as that is concerned. That is something we can have a grip on and we expect it to go down between July to September,” he said, without giving details of the said strategy.

Socioeconomic Secretary Arsenio Balisacan meanwhile said prices of the staple grain are expected to go down in the coming months in line with the global trend.

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“Those world prices are expected to go down by September this year so we expect the inflationary pressure on rice to start coming down as the year ends,” he said, noting that supply from the world market is expected to ease as the El Niño phenomenon cools down.

“Inflation in the past quarters are coming from the supply side… Major exporting countries tried to reduce their exports in order to protect their domestic consumers,” he said.

The International Monetary Fund noted that inflation in the Philippines “is very much related to supply shocks.”

“Imports of cheaper food items are encouraged so we can mitigate the impact of food prices for more vulnerable households,” said Ragnar Gudmundsson, resident representative to the Philippines of the International Monetary Fund.

Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture said that the Philippines — a country with swathes of rice fields — is poised to become the world's top importer of rice in 2025.

The Philippines is expected to import around 4.2 million metric tons (MT) of rice next year, which is over half of the 1.5 million MT set to be imported by Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, data from the USDA showed.