Inflation, the rate of increase in consumer prices, went up to 2.9 percent last month, attributed to higher prices of petroleum and sin products, but the level stayed well within the government’s target for the month.
The country’s inflation rate was higher than the 2.5 percent in December 2019, but slower compared to the 4.4 percent in the same month in 2019, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
The faster inflation, which is the highest since the 2.7 percent in June 2019, was no surprise for the government as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has predicated that the rate would be around 2.5 percent to 3.3 percent in the first month of this year.
According to the PSA, the culprits for the accelerated inflation were the spike in prices of fuels as well as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, or items that suffered a fresh round of scheduled tax increases.
In January, prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco rose 19.2 percent, while housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels jumped by 2.5 percent.
The PSA also tracked that prices of heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 2.2 percent during the month. (Chino Leyco)
