PSA contradicts Pernia, blames technical glitch for late inflation data

Ralf Rivas

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PSA contradicts Pernia, blames technical glitch for late inflation data

Rappler

The Philippine Statistics Authority's statement differs from that of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, who said a miscalculation had to be corrected

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) maintained that the delay in the release of inflation and consumer price index (CPI) data was due to a technical glitch.

In a statement released on Wednesday, September 12, the PSA said various reports such as the July 2018 labor force survey, monthly integrated survey of selected industries, and inflation and CPI data were released simultaneously

“Because of this, the PSA web server was not able to cope with the high volume of users accessing the website, thus, making it inaccessible,” the PSA said.

The announcement of August inflation hitting a fresh high of 6.4% was supposed to be released at exactly 9 am, but was delayed by more than an hour. This led to rumors that inflation was actually higher, some claiming that it hit 6.6%.

“The PSA is the official government agency to release the CPI and inflation report per Executive Order No. 352 – System of Designated Statistics. The PSA released on 05 September 2018 the inflation rate of 6.4% for August 2018 and any different figure reported to the public is not from the PSA,” the agency added.

The PSA’s reason, however, was different from what Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia cited.

Pernia earlier admitted that there was a miscalculation, which had to be corrected and led to the delay.

The PSA assured the public that it adheres to the United Nations’ fundamental principles of official statistics and complies with statistical standards.

The agency added that it is working on the technical and hardware issues. – Rappler.com

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Ralf Rivas

A sociologist by heart, a journalist by profession. Ralf is Rappler's business reporter, covering macroeconomy, government finance, companies, and agriculture.