THE country’s inflation rate has further decelerated to 4.1 percent in November 2023 due to the slower increase in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday, December 5, 2023.
The November 2023 inflation is now the lowest monthly inflation since January, followed by the 4.7 percent in July and 4.9 percent in October.
It is also far lower than the eight percent inflation rate during the same month last year.
As of November, the year-to-date inflation stood at 6.2 percent, far beyond the two to four percent target of the government.
The PSA said the year-on-year growth rate of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages slowed down to 5.7 percent in November 2023 from 7.0 percent in October 2023, the primary driver of lower inflation rate.
“This was followed by transport with 0.8 percent annual decrease from 1.0 percent annual growth in October 2023. The restaurants and accommodation services index with a slower inflation rate of 5.6 percent in November 2023 from 6.3 percent in the previous month also contributed to the downtrend of the overall inflation,” it said.
The agency also noted annual decreases in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco; clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance; health; information and communication, recreation, sport and culture; education services; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services.
It said the financial services index remained at zero percent annual rate during the month.
Of the 4.1 percent headline inflation, 2.2 percentage points were from food and non-alcoholic beverages and .5 percentage points each from restaurant and accommodation services and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels.
The PSA also noted the deceleration on food inflation at the national level from 7.1 percent in the previous month down to 5.8 percent in November 2023.
The main contributor in the food inflation were the groups of cereals and cereal products, which include rice, corn, flour, bread and other bakery products, with 66.7 percent share or 3.9 percentage points; fish and other seafood with 12.3 percent share or 0.7 percentage point; and milk, other dairy products and eggs with 9.8 percent share or 0.6 percentage point.
The lower food inflation was attributed to the annual decrease recorded in vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses; fish and other seafood; and sugar, confectionery and desserts.
Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals; meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals; fruits and nuts; and ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified also registered lower inflation rates during the said month. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)