MANILA — Consumer prices in January fell to their fastest pace in 12 months mostly because of lower increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages, the government reported Tuesday.
Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that the inflation rate slowed down to 3.9 percent in January from 4.2 percent in December last year. A year ago, the inflation rate was 4.1 percent.
The January inflation rate was within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) projection of between 3.6 percent and 4.5 percent.
Besides the lower prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the NSO attributed the drop in inflation rate to the slowing down of the annual growth rates of alcoholic beverages and tobacco; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; health; and transport indexes and the negative annual rate in communication index.
The increment in food and non-alcoholic beverages index at the national level further eased to 3.3 percent in January from 4.1 percent in December; alcoholic beverages and tobacco index, 5.6 percent from 6 percent; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index, 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent; health index, 2.8 percent from 3 percent; and transport index, 5.3 percent from 6.0 percent.
Moreover, the communication index continued to record a negative annual rate at -0.2 percent from -0.4 percent. The rest of the commodity groups have higher annual growth rates.
Prices for food alone further moved at a slower pace of 3.3 percent in January from 4.2 percent in December.
The NSO said the annual change in sugar, jam, honey and confectionery index continued to decline at -22.8 percent in January from -20.7 percent in December.
Except in food products not elsewhere classified index whose annual gain remained at 3.8 percent, those for the rest of the food groups were recorded slower.
The annual inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) picked up to 3.5 percent in January from 3 percent in December.
"Annual gains were higher in clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; recreation and culture; and restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services indexes," NSO said.
The annual inflation in areas outside NCR slowed to 4 percent in January from 4.5 percent in December. (PNA)
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