By Leslie Gatpolintan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The country’s inflation rate eased to a 21-month low, falling to 2.7 percent in June, amid government measures to tame food prices.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday reported that last month’s headline inflation was higher compared to 3.2 percent in May 2019, and 5.2 percent in June 2018. This is the lowest inflation recorded since September 2017.
The slowdown of inflation in June 2019 was mainly driven by slower annual rate posted in the index of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.7 percent.
In a press conference, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa noted that while rice weight is still high in the food basket, rice prices are decreasing.
“The reason why the food basket inflation dropped is because the rice component is negative. The weight of the rice in the overall food basket is about nine percent. The negative inflation for rice can be explained by the rice tariffication,” he said.
PSA data also indicated that education index, which declined by 4.5 percent during the month, further triggered the downtrend in the inflation last month.
“In a way, that (free education) explains it. It is possible that this would continue in the coming months,” Mapa added.
The PSA said also contributing to the downtrend of the headline inflation were the slower annual increments in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 9.3 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 3 percent; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, 3.1 percent; transport, 1.6 percent; and communication, 0.3 percent.
On the other hand, higher annual rates were registered in the indices of health at 3.7 percent; and recreation and culture, 3.2 percent.
The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s annual rates.
Year-to-date inflation was at 3.4 percent.
Inflation in National Capital Region (NCR) moved at a slower pace of 3 percent in June from 3.4 percent the previous month.
The same trend was observed in the inflation of Areas Outside NCR as it eased to 2.6 percent from 3.1 percent.
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