Arthur Fuentes, Benise Balaoing, ABS-CBN News

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines’ headline inflation further eased to 1.9 percent in September amid slower increases in rice prices, the state statistics authority said Friday.

September’s inflation rate was lower than the 3.3 percent seen in August and was the lowest since May 2020 when the inflation rate plunged to 1.6 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority said. It was even lower than the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ forecast range of 2 percent to 2.8 percent.

Inflation slowed down to 1.9 percent in September 2024 from 3.3 percent in August and 6.1 percent in September 2023.

The September clip brought the average inflation for the first nine months of the year to 3.4 percent. The government is targeting to keep inflation between 2 to 4 percent for this year.

Slower increases in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which slipped to 1.4 percent in September from 3.9 percent in August, pulled down the overall inflation rate.  

“The deceleration of food inflation in September 2024 was primarily brought about by the slower inflation rate of rice at 5.7 percent in September 2024 from 14.7 percent in the previous month. This was followed by vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with a faster year-on-year decline of 15.8 percent during the month from 4.3 percent annual decrease in August 2024,” the PSA said.

The government has said that it expects rice prices to actually drop, instead of just having slower price hikes, after the tariffs on imported rice were cut.

The PSA meanwhile also noted that transport costs also had slower increases last month compared to August, which contributed to the downtrend.  

“In addition, a slower inflation rate was recorded for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels during the month at 3.2 percent from 3.8 percent in August 2024,” the PSA said.

Core inflation, which strips out food and fuel products prone to wild swings, also fell to 2.4 percent from 2.6 percent in the previous month.

For the poorest segment of the population, or the bottom 30 percent, inflation also slowed down to 2.5 percent last month from 4.7 percent in August. The PSA noted that this was the lowest inflation rate for this particular income group since the 2.2 percent inflation rate recorded in May 2020.

Food inflation for the bottom 30 percent slowed to 2.1 percent in September from 6 percent in the previous month. In September last year, food inflation for the poorest households was observed at 10.8 percent.

The government has said that it expects rice prices to actually drop, instead of just having slower price hikes, after the tariffs on imported rice were cut.

Published Date: October 4, 2024