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Bringing down inflation rate: Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III seeks clarification from Sen. Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, on how economic managers intend to bring down the inflation rate to the level the government has projected. Pimentel noted that the executive department, when it crafted the 2024 National Expenditure Program, assumed that the inflation rate would range from 5 to 6 percent by the end of 2023. However, based on the latest estimates, inflation could reach 6.2 percent by the end of the year. “Are there realistic interventions from the government that could possibly bring down that inflation rate and keep it within the range of our original assumption?” Pimentel asked during the plenary budget deliberation on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. In response, Angara said the government has taken several measures to address food inflation and mitigate its impact, such as filling the domestic supply gap with timely and adequate importation, improving and expanding the Kadiwa program and providing monthly food credit to the poorest Filipino families, among others. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)