DESPITE the rising fuel prices in recent weeks, the Department of Trade and Industry in Central Visayas (DTI 7) assured consumers that they will not feel the effects of spikes in the prices of basic necessities anytime soon.In a text message Thursday, March 10, 2022, DTI 7 Director Ma. Elena Arbon said basic necessities and prime commodities in Central Visayas are still within the suggested retail price (SRP) to date.Arbon said Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo had talked with manufacturers and they assured that fuel price hikes won’t impact the prices of basic goods in the next three months.“We want to assure the public that the prices of the basic goods … whether we like it or not, will be affected but the impact is not immediate. We are looking at the next three months before the current situation in Europe will impact the consumer prices in the country,” Castelo said in a mix of Filipino and English, during the Laging Handa briefing on Monday, March 7.“We are just hopeful that the crisis in Ukraine and Russia will be over before that period,” Arbon said.The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects inflation “to accelerate over the near term due to higher oil prices as well as the impact of positive base effects.”The central bank’s full-year inflation forecasts continue to show that inflation will settle within the two to four percent target range for 2022 to 2023.WarningBusiness owners in Cebu already warned consumers of bigger increases in the prices of commodities due to the soaring oil prices.In fact, prices of raw materials have moved up by 15 to 40 percent, according to Rey Calooy, chairman of the Filipino-Cebuano Business Club.Prices of goods in Regions 4B (Mimaropa), 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), 8 (Eastern Visayas), 10 (Northern Mindanao) and 13 (Caraga) were reverted to SRP effective Feb. 20, 60 days after the declaration of a state of calamity in areas hardest hit by Typhoon Odette (Rai).The SRP of basic necessities like canned fish and marine products, processed milk, coffee, bread, salt, laundry soap, detergents, candles, locally manufactured instant noodles and potable water in bottles and containers are under DTI’s jurisdiction as well as the SRP of prime commodities like flour, processed and canned pork, processed and canned beef and poultry meat, noodles, vinegar, patis, soy sauce, toilet soap, paper and school supplies, batteries, cement, clinker, GI sheets, construction nails, steel wires, hollow blocks, electrical supplies and light bulbs.According to Arbon, the DTI only approved one new SRP on Aug. 29, 2021, two years after the issuance of the Sept. 30, 2019 SRP.A new SRP was published on Jan. 27.In the 2021 SRP, only 35 percent or 75 of the 126 SKUs (stock keeping unit) listed under DTI’s jurisdiction had increases to basically enable manufacturers to recover.In the 2022 January SRP, around 86 percent of the 66 SKUs had price adjustments ranging from one to nine percent, which is lower than the rate of the goods’ cost of movement.