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Despite a price ceiling, rice was one of the main sources for the acceleration of September's inflation rate that reached 6.1 percent.

In a press conference, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said September inflation, higher than 5.3 percent in August, was mainly caused by the faster increase of prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

"The main reason for the higher inflation this September compared to August was the faster increase in the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages, it has 9.7 percent inflation, and has 84.4 percent share in the increase of overall inflation in the country," he said.

Mapa said rice has a major contribution in the increase of food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation. Rice had an inflation rate of 14,1 percent.

Mapa said rice inflation is the highest recorded since March 2009.

"This is the highest since March 2009, when we recorded rice inflation reaching 22.9 percent," he said.

Mapa reiterated that "rice has the highest weight of all the commodity items, with a weight of 87 percent in the headline inflation."

"Of course it has a higher weight for the bottom 30 percent income household," he said.

In his presentation, Mapa said the second commodity group that contribute to the increase of September inflation is "transport with 1.2 percent inflation and 12.6 percent share to the overall inflation in the country."

"The reason for the faster increase of inflation in transport is the much slower decrease in the price of gasoline with -2.4 percent inflation and diesel with -12.7 percent inflation," he said.

Mapa said the one peso increase in jeepney fare that will start on October 8 will have a direct effect on the transport.

"Its (fare hike) weight is slightly higher, about 3.5 percent so that is the direct effect," he said. "It also has an indirect effect on other commodities that use transportation," he added. Robina Asido/DMS