Agriculture is Achilles heel of the economy

AGRICULTURE remains an Achilles heel of the Philippine economy based on last week's report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on the July inflation rate in the country and the performance of the agricultural sector during the second quarter of the year.

The PSA said that the inflation rate rose from 3.7 percent in June to 4.4 percent in July, overshooting the government's target of an average inflation rate of between 2 and 4 percent for this year. As of the first half of this year, the average inflation rate remains within the government's target of 3.5 percent.