 |
| PSA reports that August headline inflation in the Philippines is 6.3%. This is lower than July's 6.4% but higher than August 2021's 4.4%. Photo: DOF |
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country's headline inflation rate decreased to 6.3% in August. This is lower than July's inflation rate of 6.4% but higher than August 2021's inflation rate of 4.2%. In addition, the PSA reported that the average inflation rate between January and August of 2022 was 4.9%.
August headline inflation is within the 5.9% to 6.7% range predicted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
"The BSP's baseline inflation projections continue to indicate above-target inflation in 2022, with inflation decelerating back to the target in 2023 and 2024 following recent BSP policy rate increases," The BSP said in a press release.
PSA Usec. Dennis Mapa stated that the slow price movements of food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport commodities are the primary contributors to August's deceleration in inflation.
Transport commodities had an inflation rate of 14.6%, contributing 57.9% to the decline of the overall inflation rate. In contrast, food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 6.3% and 41.5% of the overall decline in the inflation rate.
The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group contributed 6.8% and 23.1% to the overall decline in inflation.
In the meantime, core inflation accelerated to 4.6% in August, excluding volatile food and energy items from the headline inflation rate. This was greater than July's 3.8% and August 2022's 2.8%.