Philippines agricultural output shrinks in Q3

PHOTO

The country's agricultural output decreased at a slower pace in the third quarter.

According to a report of the Philippine Statistics Authority on Wednesday, agriculture and fisheries production have shrunk by -0.3%.

Livestock and poultry production, meanwhile, grew at 2.5% and 2.9% in the third quarter, respectively, helping offset the 0.4% and 6.1% contraction in crops and fisheries production.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) stated that it was ready to implement additional policy measures as needed to stabilize inflation expectations due to a significant upside risk to its inflation forecast until 2025.

On October 26, the BSP had recently raised interest rates by 25 basis points outside the regular schedule expressing concerns about the potential for uncontrolled inflation.

The year-to-date average inflation of 6.4% continued to exceed the central bank's comfortable range of 2% to 4%.

The BSP also reported that 2.26 million Filipinos were unemployed in September which is higher than August's 2.21 million.