Manila, April 4 -- Speaker Martin Romualdez on Friday said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s economic interventions to curb food prices are "paying off" after inflation eased to its lowest level in nearly five years.

"This is a welcome development. As I have been saying, this shows that the intervention measures taken by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and his administration, like the drastic reduction in tariff on rice imports and the setting of maximum retail prices for rice and other food items, are paying off," Romualdez said in a statement.

Inflation in March slowed to 1.8 percent from 2.1 percent in February, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

"We are happy for our people because slower inflation means le...