Inflation, or the rate of change in prices, is seen easing slightly in September to 5.2 percent from 5.3 percent in August in latest readings by analysts, including Moody’s Analytics.
Commodities prices averaged 6.6 percent in the first eight months this year as prices initially trended lower but unexpectedly rose instead to 5.3 percent in August, eluding market consensus of sustained if moderate easing.
But according to the analytics unit of the sovereign credit watcher Moody’s Investors Service, price pressures driven by food and transport sector events in August have moderated enough to warrant an easing in the latest price numbers survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Analysts in August held the consensus that inflation were to have steadied in August in the wake of prices having hit a 16-month low of 4.7 percent that boosted expectations of prices stabilizing during the period.
But prices went north instead, particularly food to 8.1 percent from only 6.3 percent in July and so did the cost of transport, the PSA would later report.
