Rice can be the "source of future inflation" as a continued increase in the past six months was pointed in Friday's briefing on the July figures.

Philippine Statistics Authority Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said rice inflation increased by two percentage points from February to July and may still go higher.

"In terms of inflation, on the time series, it increased at the national level since February, so in February it was 2.2 percent, March 2.6 percent, April 2.9 percent, May 3.4 percent, June 3.6 percent and July 4.2 percent. That is the picture of the rice inflation for this year," he said.

"We know that the weight of rice in the (food) basket is nine percent, so it is one of the things that we are monitoring. It is one of the threat in the increase of inflation, so right now it is not that high but I agree with your observation that it can be a source of our future inflation," he added.

Mapa explained that in the "food basket the highest in all income households is rice as a single commodity, which weighs 8.9 percent or (almost) 9 percent, it is much higher, it is 20 percent in the bottom 30 percent (income household)."

"We really see that in the past years if you're tracking the reports of the PSA in 2018 for example this is one of the source of inflation, " he said.

Mapa also noted that although "we are seeing reduction in inflation that is a fact since January" there are items that increase like rice and vegetables.

"It may have an impact this August because of the typhoon," he said.

Based on the latest report from the Department of Agriculture, the damage and losses due to the affected farms and fisheries sector has reached P4.47 billion.

"Damage and losses in rice amounted to P1.75 billion with affected area at 111,5477 hectares and volume of production loss at 42,754 metric tons or 0.21% of the total annual production target volume for rice at 19.76 million MT", said the PSA.

The Department of Agriculture also recorded P296.58 million worth of damage to high value crops which includes vegetables, spices, and fruits. Robina Asido/DMS