(Eagle News)–The country’s inflation rate accelerated to 2.5 percent after four months of deceleration, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Tuesday, July 7.
According to the PSA, with the development, year-to-date inflation for 2020 stands at 2.5 percent.
In May, inflation was at 2.1 percent and in June 2019 at 2.7 percent.
The PSA said the acceleration in the June inflation was primarily brought about by the 2.3 percent annual increment recorded in the transport index, specifically, the tricycle fare index.
In May, the tricycle fare index posted a 5.6 percent annual decrease.
The PSA said there were also annual increases in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, at 18.5 percent; and in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; and communication, both at 0.4 percent.
Annual mark-ups, on the other hand, slowed down in the indices of the following commodity groups during the period:
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages, 2.7 percent;
- Recreation and culture, 1.2 percent;
- Education, 1.6 percent; and
- Restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.3 percent.
“Indices of the rest of the commodity groups such as clothing and footwear; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; and health were the same as their previous month’s annual growth rates,” the PSA said.
Food inflation in the country decelerated further to 2.7 percent in June.
Core inflation recorded an annual gain of 3.0 percent in June, higher than the core inflation noted the previous month, at 2.9 percent.
In the same month of 2019, core inflation was at 3.3 percent.
