(Eagle News)–The country’s headline inflation further eased to 2.8 percent in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority has reported.
According to the PSA, this was the lowest inflation rate reported since October 2020, when the rate was at 2.3 percent.
January’s headline inflation is also
down from the 3.9 percent reported in December last year and the 8.7 percent reported in January 2023.
It was well within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ forecast range of 2.8 to 3.6 percent and the government’s target of 3 percent.
The PSA said the downtrend in the overall inflation for January 2024 was brought about by the slower annual increments in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.5 percent in January 2024 from 5.4 percent in the previous month.
Other contributors to the downtrend, the PSA said, were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which posted a slower annual increase of 0.7 percent.
In December 2023, this was at 1.5 percent.
“The latest inflation print is consistent with the BSP’s outlook that inflation will likely moderate in Q1 2024 due largely to negative base effects and the easing of supply constraints affecting key commodities,” the BSP said.
