Prices of consumers goods and services eased in October, nudging the closely-watched headline inflation lower to 4.9 percent year-on-year, even lower than the central bank’s forecast range.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas projected the headline inflation slowing within the 5.1 percent and 5.9 percent range after rising to 6.1 percent in September. In October 2022, the headline inflation rate was 7.7 percent.
Economic Planning Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa told a news conference to announce the inflation data Tuesday that deceleration in the rate of increases in the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages was the main reason for the softer inflation print last month.
Mapa said the biggest contributor to slower inflation in October was the price of vegetables and rice, and the cost of housing rental, cooking gas, and utilities.
“If we don’t see any supply shocks, our view is that inflation rate will go down” in the coming months, said Mapa. He said key factor to the benign outlook is the softer price of rice, whose inflation in October eased to 13.2 percent from 17.9 percent in September.
Year-to-date, inflation averaged 6.4 percent, outside the 2 percent to 4 percent target of the BSP. The central bank now expects inflation to stay above the target range through the first half of 2024 and said it was ready to tighten monetary policy further to rein in inflation. The BSP’s overnight rate is now at 6.5 percent.
Core inflation, which excludes certain food and energy items whose prices are volatile, stood at x percent in October after rising 5.9 percent in September.
For the bottom 30 percent income class, whose spending is higher for food and housing, the inflation in October was 5.3 percent after settling at 6.9 percent in September and at 8.9 percent in October 2022.
