Inflation remains at 6.7% in October, but PSA says rate of price hikes slowing down
Inflation rate in October remained at 6.7 percent from the previous month, snapping an increase of nine straight months but it stayed at a nine-year high, the Philippine Statistics Agency ( PSA) said on Tuesday.
"The year-on-year headline inflation at the national level was pegged at 6.7 percent in October. It was the same rate recorded in the previous month," PSA Undersecretary Lisa Bersales said in a press briefing.
Bersales said month-on-month growth for October decreased at 0.3 percent compared to an increase of 0.8 percent last September as the pace of increase in price hikes slowed down.
"In the past three month, headline inflation for the whole Philippines has been going down. This means, there seems to be a slowing of increase in prices," she added.
She said the top contributors in overall inflation are from food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas, and fuels; and transport.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages slowed down at 9.4 percent from 9.7 percent last month; while increases were seen in housing, water, electricity, gas, and fuels; and transport that were recorded at 4.8 percent and 8.8 percent.
"On the average for the whole Philippines, the increase in prices on goods and services the Filipino families buy has remained the same for October compared with September. However, I would like you to take note of the differences in each regions," she said.
According to the report, seven regions registered higher inflation while eight regions slow down. Highest inflation is recorded in Bicol at 9.9 percent but lower than September's 10.1 percent.
Central Luzon remained the lowest at 4.4 percent also lower than the previous 4.5 percent.
Bersales said Typhoon Ompong caused the increase in inflation in Ilocos region at 8.6 percent, Cordillera region at 5.2 percent, and Mimaropa at 9.0 percent.
Bersales said prices in Metro Manila have stabilized, causing the inflation rate in the National Capital Region to slowed down to 6.1 percent from previous 6.3 percent.
She said they cannot tell if the executive and administrative orders released by Malacanang has helped in easing inflation rate.
"What we can just say is if we look at the point of view of patterns, for Metro Manila specifically, the government has been doing a lot of intervention to ease inflation in Central Manila. And just from looking at our figures, we see that there is pattern of easing of inflation in Metro Manila," she said. Ella Dionisio/DMS
