THE country’s inflation rate continued its acceleration streak for the second straight month in November due to faster rise in food and transportation costs during the period, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday, December 5.
At a press conference, National Statistician and PSA chief Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa said inflation — which measures the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services — quickened further to 2.5% last month.
This was faster than the 2.3% inflation print recorded in October.
Last month’s rate also fell within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) forecast range of 2.2% to 3%, citing increased prices of vegetables, fish, and meat due to unfavorable weather conditions, higher electricity rates and petroleum prices, and the depreciation of the peso as the primary sources of upward price pressures this month.
November’s inflation rate brought the year-to-date average inflation rate to stand at 3.2%, which is within the government’s ceiling of 2% to 4% for the entire 2024.
The BSP said the inflation rate seen in November is consistent with its assessment that inflation will continue to trend closer to the low end of the target range in the near term, reflecting easing supply pressures for key food items, particularly rice.
“Ang pangunahing dahilan ng mas mataas na antas ng inflation nitong Nobyembre 2024 kesa noong Oktubre 2024 ay ang mas mabilis na pagtaas ng presyo ng Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages sa antas na 3.4% [mula 2.9%],” Mapa said.
The PSA chief added that the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index accounted for 65.9% of the overall inflation rate last month.
In particular, the index of vegetables saw an increase to 5.9% from a decline of 9.2% in October “dahil nga sa mga sunod-sunod na bagyo.”
Likewise, inflation for fish and other seafood rose to 0.4% from a negative rate or decrease of 0.4% month-on-month.
Meat inflation also saw a slight increment of 3.9% during the month from 3.6% in October.
Food inflation, which tracks the price movements of food items in a “basket” commonly purchased by households, also rose to 3.5% from 3% month-on-month.
Also contributing to the November inflation uptrend was Transport index with a slower decrease of 1.2% from -2.1% in the prior month, accounting for 28.4% of the overall print, amid the slower decrease in the prices of gasoline and diesel which posted inflation prints of -8% (from -11.1) and -9.4% (from -18.5%), respectively.
Inflation felt by the bottom 30% income households in the country veered away from the national trend as it slowed down to 2.9% from 3.4% month-on-month.
Mapa said this was primarily due to a decline in food inflation for the income class at 3.4% from 3.9% with the rice index easing down to a rate of 5.4% from 10.2% in October. (GMA Integrated News)
