Inflation for bottom 30% households down to 5.9% in January

February 22, 2019

Inflation for the bottom 30 percent households in the country fell to 5.9 percent in January from 7.2 percent in December, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.

''The continued deceleration in the annual increment of the heavily-weighted food, beverages, and tobacco (FBT) index pushed down further the Philippines’ year-on-year inflation for the bottom 30 percent income households in January 2019 at 5.9 percent,'' said the PSA.

Inflation of the FBT index in January was at 6.7 percent.

Also contributing to the downtrend were the decline in the annual mark-ups in the indices of housing and repairs  at 4.6 percent; fuel, light and water , 3.4 percent; and services, 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the indices of clothing and miscellaneous retained their previous month’s annual increases of 3.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

The annual inflation rate for food index at the national level eased to 5.8 percent in January. Its annual rate was recorded at 7.1 percent in the previous month and 4.8 percent in January 2018. 

The index of corn exhibited an annual decline of 0.7 percent during the month. Other food groups registered slower annual growth in January. DMS