Lower prices gasoline and diesel helped slow down headline inflation in February to 8.6 percent from 8.7 percent in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday.
Core inflation, which strips prices of volatile food and energy items, still rose to 7.8 percent in February from 7.4 percent in January. The core inflation in February was the highest since the 8.1 percent set in March 1999 and has been on the upward trend since March last year after settling at 1.9 percent in February 2022.
The steady acceleration of core inflation would likely keep the hawkish stance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which steadily raised interest rates to rein in price expectations. The BSP has an inflation target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.
“Among the 13 commodity groups, transport was the sole driver of the downtrend of the overall inflation during the month (of February), recording 9.0 percent inflation rate in February 2023 from 11.1 percent inflation in January 2023,” National Statistician Dennis Mapa told a news conference.
Mapa said even with the higher base in March last year it was still too early to project whether inflation would continue to decelerate this March, especially with the latest announcement of a fuel price increases.
Average inflation in January and February stood at 8.6 percent–way above the central bank’s target range.
Inflation for the bottom 30 percent of the population was at 9.7 percent in February, the same level posted in January and up from the 3.5 percent in February 2022 due to higher prices of food and beverages, utilities and restaurants.
