Philippine inflation slowed down for the fifth straight month at 3.3 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority ( PSA) on Friday.

“This is the lowest inflation rate since January 2018,” Assistant Secretary Josie Perez said in a press briefing at Quezon City.

She said inflation was higher at 3.8 percent in February 2019 and 4.3 percent in March 2018.

“The main drivers in the downtrend of inflation in March 2019 were food and non-alcoholic beverages and alcoholic beverages and tobacco,” Perez said.

According to PSA, these commodity groups recorded the biggest slowdown in inflation compared from last month.

Items that mainly led to the slowdown of inflation were rice at 1.4 percent from 2.9 percent last February; corn at -2.4 percent from -0.3 percent; fish at 4.8 percent from 7.8 percent; oil and fats at 3.8 percent from 4.1 percent; fruits at 1.7 percent from 1.8 percent; vegetables at 4.0 percent from 4.9 percent; and sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery at 7.1 percent from 8.0 percent.

Perez clarified that they are not saying rice prices already went down.

"The contribution of food for the food and non-alcoholic beverages is big... Filipinos eat rice so therefore it still included in the group that contributes to the lowering of inflation," Perez explained.

She said the rice tariffication bill has no impact yet on the latest inflation data.

Perez said tobacco with an annual increment of 13.6 percent also contributed to the downtrend of inflation for March.

“Among the 11 major commodity groups, the top three contributors to the overall inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 40.6 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 23.4 percent; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services at 14.5 percent,” she said.

Perez said annual inflation in National Capital Region decelerated to 3.2 percent from 3.8 percent last February and 5.2 percent last March 2018.

Lower inflation in areas outside of NCR were registered at 3.4 percent.

“The highest annual rate among the regions in areas outside NCR remained in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) region at 4.8 percent in March 2019. This annual rate was slower than the annual rate in February 2019,” said Perez.

“The lowest inflation among the regions in areas outside NCR in March 2019 was recorded in Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) at 2.0 percent,” she added.

Perez said they hope that through programs of the government, the inflation rate will continue declining.

“We are hoping that this will continue, we are happy if this continue since it’s for our country,” said Perez.

She added it will also depend on government's response to El Nino which could affect the inflation rate in the coming months. Ella Dionisio/DMS