Feeling the pinch

It has become quite common now to hear people say that we are reeling under the effects of inflation. But it’s become such a problem that it bears repeating. The soaring cost of essential goods and services has become so bad that it’s impacting every Filipino.

And the scariest part is that it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets any better.

All the talk of the peso being weak in the past couple of weeks comes on the heels of continuing inflation and how our currency is handling rising prices in the global economy. The impact on us is heavy because everything costs so much more in the wake of rising interest rates in the United States and other parts of the world.

The way the world works now, everything that happens in the global market will impact everyone. Lower gas production heralds a repeated increase in gas prices, which will affect the transportation and shipment of goods, causing a shortage that will make the prices of everything else continue to balloon. It’s a cause-and-effect circular pattern, leaving economists struggling to find an answer.

According to a recent Pulse Asia survey, inflation and the rising cost of goods have become a top concern for Filipino consumers. Sharp increases across the board have heavily impacted how Filipinos live and work, and now they are calling for the government to focus on and address inflation.

More than 50 percent of people across all classes (and over 70 percent in Class D) see inflation as an urgent national issue. It is because the circular problem is true here too. Inflation impacts not only the way Filipinos live, but also how they work. It has become increasingly expensive for Filipino workers to simply get to work while simultaneously making it more costly for companies to do business. It will just keep going around.

With the Federal Reserve pushing up the rates in the US, the peso will continue to struggle against the dollar, making prices soar since we are an importing country. Even our basics like rice, sugar, and meat are imported, and we’ll continue to see the global economy’s impact on these goods.

So what does the average Filipino do now? Most are just trying to keep their heads above water, and many mid-income families are slowly watching their savings dwindle while trying to keep up. And there’s still the health crisis looming. COVID hasn’t gone away and other diseases like dengue are rampant.

It’s terrifying to get sick now because, just like everything else, the price of care has increased exponentially. Now, one illness could easily wipe out everything you’ve saved. In most private hospitals – you can’t even stay in the emergency room without already paying a certain amount. Which may seem like a lot, but which you can go through in less than 24 hours. That thought is even scarier now with the state of inflation and the economy.

Hopefully, the government will place due importance on controlling inflation. Along with job creation and fighting criminality, it remains a top concern for Filipinos.

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Compliance with the new SIM registration law is underway. This new law, requiring users to provide identity documents when buying a SIM card, aims to prevent criminals and scam artists from buying new SIM cards for text scams, misinformation, and bank fraud.

The country has been dealing with mobile scams for a while, but this became more critical during the pandemic. With a penetration rate of over 61 percent the Philippines is one of Asia’s biggest smartphone-dependent nations. Many Filipinos rely on mobile phones for shopping, food delivery, and more. This was exacerbated by COVID-19.

The amount of scam texts we all receive daily is staggering. Sending links promising anything from easy income to gambling opportunities – all if you “click here.” Unfortunately, while many Filipinos are aware these are phishing scams, many are not, and thousands continue to lose money on them every day.

The telecoms have already blocked more than one billion spam and suspicious messages this year alone, but they still come regularly. At the rate they are sent, I tend to believe this is the work of big professional groups and not just by individual users. Texts come in so uniform they seem to have been sent via digital software or AI. Many don’t even sound like someone typed them out themselves.

Now preparations are underway with all the telecoms to comply with the new requirements. A nationwide rollout is expected to create a more robust identification system to verify users. While this may prevent SIM cards from being purchased en masse, we’ll have to wait and see how effective it will be against SMS scams.

Until then, always be vigilant. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t open suspicious messages or click on links you can’t personally verify.