THE country’s headline inflation rate has increased to 4.9 percent in August 2021 from four percent in July 2021.
This is at the upper end of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) forecast range of 4.1 to 4.9 percent for August 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021.
Despite this increase, the year-to-date inflation remained at 4.4 percent.
“The latest outturn is consistent with the BSP’s assessment that inflation could settle close to the high end of the target range in the near term before decelerating back to within the target range by yearend,” said BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno in a tweet. “In 2022 to 2023, inflation will likely fall towards the midpoint of the target, supported by the continued and timely implementation of non-monetary measures and reforms to address directly supply-side pressures on key food items.”
The BSP chief noted that “the risks to the inflation outlook remain broadly balanced over the policy horizon. The uptick in international commodity prices due to supply-chain bottlenecks and the recovery in global demand could lend upside pressures on inflation.”
He also warned that “the emergence of new coronavirus variants, leading to stricter lockdown measures and delayed reopening of the economy, is seen to pose downside risks to both aggregate demand and inflation.”