Rice prices continued to ease in early May, indicating a potential further slowdown in inflation after headline inflation decelerated in April to its slowest pace since November 2019.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the national average retail price of regular milled rice stood at P43.74 per kilo during the first five days of May—down significantly from P51.56 during the same period in 2024.
In comparison, PSA surveys in early and late April—when inflation slowed to 1.4 percent—showed regular milled rice priced at P44.92 and P44.44 per kilo, respectively. A year earlier, prices were much higher, with rice at P51.38 per kilo in early April and P51.41 in late April.
Rice prices surged last year due to global supply concerns, including India’s export ban on non-basmati rice and droughts triggered by El Niño. At the time, Philippine tariff on rice imports remained at 35 percent until it was lowered to 15 percent starting in July.
Global prices began to soften in late 2024, while local rice prices have been gradually declining, helped by a series of initiatives from the Department of Agriculture.
However, the recent decline in rice prices may be offset by rising costs of pork, galunggong, and vegetables in early May compared to the same period last year. Food and non-alcoholic beverages make up around 38 percent of the Philippine consumer price basket, with rice accounting for just over 9 points of that percentage.
May inflation data will be released on June 5. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting on June 19, where inflation trend will be a major factor in the policy decision. The BSP has already flagged further policy easing.
