QUEZON CITY (PIA) — The overall Philippine inflation rate has continued its downward movement for two months in a row in September, settling at its lowest since 1.6 percent in May 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday, October 4.
PSA’s summary inflation report indicates that the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services eased further to 1.9 percent in September from 3.3 percent in August.
This brought the year-to-date inflation rate to 3.4 percent, which is still within the government’s ceiling of two percent to four percent for the entire year.
Further, the PSA said that the main driver of the downtrend was the lower annual increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 1.4 percent in September 2024 from 3.9 percent in August.
Mainly, this was due to the decline of 15.8 percent in the cost of vegetables, tubers, and cooking bananas during the month from 4.3 percent in the annual drop in August 2024.
But faster year-on-year increases were observed in the indices of milk, other dairy products, and eggs at four percent from 3.2 percent in the previous month, and fruits and nuts at 11.9 percent from 9.4 percent in August.
Moreover, slower annual decreases were noted during the month in the prices of fish and other seafood products at 1.2 percent and oils and fats at 1.4 percent from their respective year-on-year declines of 3.1 percent and two percent in August.
Also contributing to the inflation rate drop was transport, with a faster year-on-year decrease of 2.4 percent in October from a 0.2 percent annual drop in August 2024.
In addition, the PSA said, a slower inflation rate was recorded for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels this October at 3.2 percent from 3.8 percent in August. Also, lower annual increments were noted in other commodities.
The housing, water, electricity, and other fuels index was the third reason for the easing of September’s inflation, posting a rate of 3.2 percent and 9.4 percent share to the overall slowdown.
Moreover, food inflation, which tracks the prices of food items commonly purchased by households, cooled down to 1.4 percent from 4.2 percent month-on-month. (PIA DMD)
