date:Jul 08, 2014
ed to arrive this quarter, Pangilinan said. Separately, it allowed traders in February to buy 163,000 tons of rice from overseas.
Record Prices
Retail prices of well-milled rice rose 20 percent from a year earlier to a record as of the third week of June, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The rice-subsidy program has been in place since at least 1989.
The increase in rice prices really is inflationary; it affects other products, said Pangilinan, who holds a masters degree in p