(Eagle News) — The country’s headline inflation slowed down further to 3.8 percent in February 2019, considered the “lowest inflation rate since March 2018,” according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The 3.8 percent in February was much lower than the 4.4 percent in the previous month and below market expectations of 4 percent. The same 3.8 percent inflation rate was also posted in February last year.
“The main drivers in the downtrend of inflation in February 2019 were food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and transport,” the PSA said in a tweet.
The government office said that “slower annual increments were recorded in the indices of all the commodity groups, except for Education and Communication” based on their annual rates in the previous month.
Education posted a “negative annual rate of 3.8 percent” while inflation for communication remained at 0.4 percent.
The PSA said that for food and non-alcoholic beverages, “the items which primarily contributed to the slowdown of inflation in February 2019 were rice, corn, meat, milk, cheese and eggs, fruit, and vegetables.”
Tobacco with an annual increment of 15.7 percent also contributed to the downtrend of inflation last month, it said.
In Metro Manila, inflation akso slowed down further to 3.8 percent last month.
All the regions in areas outside Metro Manila also had slower annual mark-ups in February 2019, compared to January 2019, the lowest being in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 2.5 percent.
On the other hand, the highest annual increase among the regions outside Metro Manila was seen in MIMAROPA Region at 5.3 percent.
The PSA also noted that “among the 11 major commodity groups, the top three contributors to the overall inflation were Food and
Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels, and Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services.”
Meanwhile for transport, “the items which contributed to the deceleration of inflation in February were petroleum and fuels for personal transport equipment, domestic air fare, and ferry/ship fare,” the PSA added.
