Manila's rice import plan

Manila's rice import plan

MANILA (UPI): The Philippines plans to spend 12.5 billion pesos (US$483 million) to solve a major rice shortage that has caused inflation to soar to its highest level in four years.

The Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, a special group formed by President Ramos to solve the crisis that has more than doubled the price of the crop, proposed the money be given to government agencies directly involved in the problem.

Earlier, the National Economic and Development Authority proposed that the rice shortage be addressed by liberalizing the importation of rice. Neda said without the rice crisis, the Philippines inflation rate would have been far below the 11.8 percent it registered in September.

To off-set the shortage, the Philippines ordered 220,000 metric tons of the crop from Vietnam, Thailand, China and India.