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The rise in commodity prices nationwide slowed to 3.9 percent in December 2023, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on data released on Friday, PSA said this was the slowest inflation rate since February 2022 when inflation averaged 3 percent.
Full year inflation averaged 6 percent which marked the highest annual inflation rate since 2008 when inflation averaged 8.2 percent.
Nonetheless, December marked the first time in 19 months inflation reached the government’s target. The inflation target set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is 2 to 4 percent.
The PSA said the slowdown in inflation in December 2023 was primarily brought about by the lower year-on-year growth in the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.5 percent in December 2023 from 2.5 percent in the previous month.
It added that this was followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages with 5.4 percent inflation during the month from 5.7 percent in November 2023.
PSA also said food inflation at the national level eased to 5.5 percent in December 2023 from 5.8 percent in the previous month. In December 2022, food inflation was higher at 10.6 percent.
The data also showed core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, also slowed to 4.4 percent in December 2023 from 4.7 percent in the previous month.
This brought the average core inflation rate for 2023 at 6.6 percent. In December 2022, core inflation was observed at 6.9 percent.
Meanwhile, the country’s inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent income households increased to 5 percent in December 2023 from 4.9 percent in November 2023 and 9.4 percent in December 2022.
While inflation in December was the fastest in two months, full-year inflation for the poorest Filipinos averaged 6.7 percent, which was the highest since 2008, when the average inflation for the Bottom 30 percent was at 13.9 percent.
PSA said the primary driver to the upward trend of the overall inflation for this income group in December 2023 was the higher inflation for the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 7.4 percent during the month from 7.2 percent in the previous month.
Image credits: Michael O. Ligalig | Dreamstime.com
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