The war in Israel will likely have little impact on the Philippine economy, Go Negosyo founder and private sector lead for jobs Joey Concepcion said on Thursday, Oct. 12.

“Well, I think, we don’t import much from Israel. It may have some influence on oil prices but we saw that earlier this year, the price of oil has also fallen -it’s almost close to 100 dollars, now it has fallen to about 70 dollars in July, and then it’s up now because of the conflict to about 89 to 90 dollars,” Concepcion said during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing.

“So the volatility on oil (prices) will remain because of, you know, Israel and these places are also relatively close to the oil countries, but I am confident that the rest of the commodities, our prices are still almost the same,” he added.

Concepcion said Israel is not one of the country’s major trading partners.

Israel, however, provides support in terms of information technology and knowledge on vertical farms.

“On top of that, our purchases are from the rest of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and the United States. So, I think we should be fine and I’m very confident even if it does escalate, our (only problem will be) OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) will be stuck and will not be able to go home,” he said.

Concepcion said prices of other commodities will likely be the same for the remaining months of the year.

He said supply and prices of wheat and sugar, for instance, will remain stable.

“On wheat prices, we’ve had stock ‘til next year, July, and it’s been stable. Currently, there’s no problem in Ukraine and Russia, which was initially a problem which caused wheat prices to move up but ever since then, wheat prices have come down and are now stable. For sugar, prices are also okay, as well as the rest of the commodities,” he added.

Concepcion said he is confident that “commodity prices will continue to be where it is today,” unless a very strong typhoon affects rice production and other agricultural crops.

Meanwhile, Concepcion said he expects the number of employed Filipinos to increase during the Christmas season.

“During Christmas, (a lot of firms) hire because the sale of consumer goods also increase(s). So there will be a lot of hiring especially in the services sector like fast food, restaurants,” he said, adding that consumer spending will lead to an increase in employment.

To create more employment, Concepcion cited the need to help micro, small and medium enterprises to scale up.

“So if they are able to scale up, there will be more jobs that will be available and that is our goal – to increase the number of jobs through helping the micro and small become bigger and that’s the formula really of creating prosperity,” he said.PNA