Manila, Aug. 7 -- The 60-day suspension on rice importation will not likely cause an increase in inflation, Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Thursday.

In a briefing at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) office in Quezon City, Balisacan said world rice prices already declined by over 30 percent.

He added the country also currently has enough rice supply.

"World prices have been declining. When the tariff of 35 percent was reduced to 15 percent, world prices then were quite high, close to USD600 per metric ton. Now its down to almost USD450 to USD490 per MT, almost 31 percent drop in world prices so the situation now is quite different from the time when we [reduced] the 35...