THE Philippines' headline inflation rate continued its downward trend in July 2025, easing to 0.9 percent from 1.4 percent in June, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday, August 5, 2025.
The 0.9 percent inflation rate in July marks the lowest inflation print since early 2023, signaling further cooling of price pressures across key consumer sectors.
The deceleration was largely attributed to slower increases and even declines in several major commodity groups:
* Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels saw a significant slowdown, rising by only 2.1 percent year-on-year in July, down from 3.2 percent in June.
* A notable turnaround occurred in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which posted an annual decline of 0.2 percent in July — a reversal from the 0.4 percent increase seen in June.
* The transport sector posted a deeper deflation, with prices falling 2.0 percent year-on-year in July, accelerating from the 1.6 percent decline in June.
The PSA also recorded softer inflation print for education services at 4.3 percent from 5.3 percent during the month prior and for personal care and miscellaneous goods and services to 2.3 percent from 2.4 percent in the previous month.
The commodity groups, which contributed to the overall inflation, are housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 47.3 percent share or 0.4 percentage point; restaurants and accommodation services with 24.7 percent share or 0.2 percentage point; and alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 14.2 percent share or 0.1 percentage point.
Higher annual growth was recorded in the indices of the following commodity groups:
* Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 4.2 percent from 3.8 percent
* Clothing and footwear, 1.8 percent from 1.7 percent
* Health, 2.6 percent from 2.4 percent
* Information and communication, 0.5 percent from 0.4 percent
* Restaurants and accommodation services, 2.3 percent from 2.1 percent
The food inflation also recorded an annual decline of 0.5 percent in July 2025 from a 0.1 percent annual increase in the previous month. In July 2024, food inflation was higher at 6.7 percent.
Food inflation means the prices of food commodities are getting more expensive over time.
The top three food groups in terms of contribution to food inflation were the following:
* Cereals and cereal products, which includes rice, corn, and flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, with -3.5 percentage points share;
* Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with -0.4 percentage point share; and
* Sugar, confectionery and desserts with -0.01 percentage point share. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)