March inflation declines to 3.3 percent

April 5, 2019

Inflation for the month of March grew at 3.3 percent, the slowest since 3.4 percent in January 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority ( PSA) said Friday.

It was the fifth straight month inflation had declined after hitting a near-decade high of 6.7 percent in August as the central bank tightened interest rates.

The data landed in the government's target range of 2-4 percent in 2019.

''The downtrend was primarily due to slower annual increase in the index of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.4 percent, '' the PSA said.

Annual rates also decelerated in the indices of the following commodity groups: alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 10.8 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; and furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, both at 3.4 percent; health, 3.9 percent; communication, 0.3 percent; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 3.7 percent.

A lower annual rate of 3.1 percent was still registered in the country’s food index.

The index of corn dropped further by 2.4 percent, while slowdowns in the annual increments were recorded in the indices of the following food groups: rice, 1.4 percent; fish, 4.8 percent; oils and fats, 3.8 percent; fruits, 1.7 percent; vegetables, 4 percent and sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionary, 7.1 percent.

Annual inflation in NCR decelerated further to 3.2 percent in March at 3.8 percent in February and 5.2 percent in March 2018. DMS