DOF sees February inflation inching to 4.1 percent

March 5, 2018

The Department of Finance ( DOF) said Monday that inflation rate for February "likely edged higher to 4.1 percent", which is its highest since October 2014.

In its economic bulletin, the DOF said "food and non-food commodities alike see their respective rate of price increase relatively unchanged while those of sin products may have likely accelerated."

"The latter may be explained partly by price increase due to sin tax hikes and partly by the appropriate price adjustments of Mighty Corporation following its paying the right amount of taxes," the DOFadded.

Inflation in January reached 4 percent from year-ago levels of 2.7 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said. The PSA will announce February inflation on Tuesday.

The DOF said 0.4 percentage points of its February inflation forecast of 4.1 percent "is accounted for by sin products." DMS