Philippines' inflation eases further to 16-month low at 3 pct

Source: Xinhua | 2019-05-08

The Philippines' headline inflation slowed down further to a 16-month low of 3.0 percent in April from 3.3 percent in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.
"This is the lowest inflation posted since January 2018," the PSA said in a report, adding that inflation rate in April 2018 was 4.5 percent.
The slowdown was mainly brought about by the slower annual increase in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 3.0 percent, the PSA added.
For the country's National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, inflation decelerated to 3.1 percent. For areas outside NCR, inflation clocked in at 3.0 percent, according to the PSA.
"The government continues to rein in the overall price increases in the country," Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said, adding that food inflation slowed to 3.0 percent as price adjustments in key food items such as rice, meat, and fish further slackened.
Pernia said the April inflation was slightly below the median market forecast of 3.1 percent, and well within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) forecast of 2.7 percent to 3.5 percent for the period.
"The recent inflation reading validates our efforts towards stabilizing inflation so that the country's buoyant economic growth, along with key reforms, remains unimpeded," Pernia said.
"This also brought down the year-to-date inflation to 3.6 percent, which is within BSP's inflation target for 2019," he added.
However, Pernia said that the government should remain watchful of upside risks to inflation such as the ongoing El Nino phenomenon, possible increase in utility rates, and volatility in international oil prices.