THE country's headline inflation rate in June 2019 slowed down to 2.7 percent, the lowest since September 2017.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) traced this to the slow pace of increase in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
The inflation rate for this commodity basket in June decelerated to 2.7 percent. Slower annual increments were also reported in the following: alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 9.3 percent;
housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 3.0 percent; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, 3.1 percent; transport, 1.6 percent; and communication, 0.3 percent.
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 (see Tables 3 and 4).
Excluding selected food and energy items, core inflation, likewise, exhibited a slower pace of 3.3 percent in June 2019. In the previous month, core inflation was registered at 3.5 percent and in June 2018, 4.3 percent (see Table 9).
A lower annual hike of 2.6 percent was noted in the country’s food index in June 2019. Its annual rate in May 2019 was higher at 3.2 percent and in June 2018, 5.8 percent (see Table 7).
Annual changes in the indices of rice and corn dropped further by 1.7 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively. Other food groups had lower annual increase except for the indices of fruits and food products, not elsewhere classified whose annual gains were higher at 5.0 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. (SunStar Philippines from PR)