This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
At any rate, what you should also know is that Philippine inflation is still the highest among the biggest ASEAN countries .Obviously, taming inflation in the Philippines has been quite the challenge. Policymakers themselves are not of one mind as to the best policy to pursue. Essentially, Secretary Balisacan is wary that further interest rate hikes might hurt the economy at large, if it makes borrowing too costly, and therefore discourages too much investments.
Sure, food is a huge part of inflation, and the BSP has nothing to do with food prices. But persistently high inflation plants in the minds of people that maybe inflation will continue to be high in the next months of the year.