MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Step 2 Registration will resume on January 4, 2021.

Step 2 Registration is the validation of supporting documents and capturing of biometric information at registration centers.

Step 1 Registration was conducted from Oct. 12 to Nov. 25 nationwide.

The PSA claimed significant progress after recording more than 8.4 million Filipinos completing Step 1 Registration.

In a statement, National Statistician and Civil Registrar General and Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said the PSA will also release an official advisory on hired and trained enumerators for Step 2 Registration.

The official added that they will continue Step 1 Registration activities until it is safe for registrants to proceed with Step 2 Registration.

“The PSA wants to ensure that we deliver a safe, secure, and seamless PhilSys registration experience to the Filipino people. We encourage all Filipinos to participate once we open the registration activities to the public,” he said.

For inquiries and questions, the PSA encourages the public to send message through email at info@philsys.gov.ph or to the agency’s official Facebook page.

The agency may also be reached through its hotline number 1388 or via text at 0915-941-5680.

The unemployment rate in October 2020 eases to 8.7%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

From April 2020, with a 17.6% unemployment rate, the number of unemployed Filipinos continued to drop to 10% in July and 8.7% in October. This is equivalent to 3.8 million Filipinos, 15 years old and above, who are unemployed.

With several establishments reopening after strict lockdowns due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), several Filipinos were able to find jobs during the last quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate also droppedd to 14.4% this October, compared to 17.3%t last July.

The PSA said the economy is gradually recovering as lockdowns continue to ease. -AAC

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s inflation sped up to 2.5% in October, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.

Data released by the PSA showed an uptick in the rate of the price increases in the country driven by higher food and non-alcoholic beverage prices.

The PSA attributed the increase to higher inflation for meat and fish, with meat at 4.7 percent and fish at 3.7 percent.

“Ang source talaga ng presyo ng pagtaas ay basically Luzon, in particular yung mga provinces that are near the National Capital Region,”  National Statistician Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said.

The consumer price index in October rose faster than the 2.3 percent rise in September, the PSA said, but it is within the 1.9 to 2.7 percent forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the month.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel items, slowed to 3 percent from 3.2 percent.

Miscellaneous services such as barbershops, and education also contributed to the acceleration of inflation for the month.

The BSP said the October inflation remained consistent with its assessment of favorable inflation dynamics.

“The balance of risks continues to be on the downside due largely to the impact of domestic and global economic activity of possible deeper economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” the central bank said in a statement. – RRD (with details from Correspondent Vincent Arboleda)