Inflation rises anew to 6.1%

Inflation hit a four-month high of 6.1 percent in September, up from 5.3 percent a month ago due to faster increases in the prices of food, especially rice, and non-alcoholic beverages, the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) said Thursday.

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa said this was still slower than the 6.9 percent inflation in September 2022, and brought average inflation for the first nine months to 6.6 percent, well over the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent.

This comes a day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the 15 percentage-point drop in his approval rating in the recent Pulse Asia survey was “not surprising” given the gut issues, including high prices of basic commodities, that his administration is trying to address.

Pulse Asia said the drop in the approval scores of the country’s top leaders might be traced to the continued rise in the prices of basic commodities, such as food and fuel.

The same survey showed elevated inflation remained the top concern of Filipinos, followed by the need to raise the wages of workers for them to cope with the rising prices of goods and services.

Mapa said the rise in the overall inflation in September 2023 was primarily brought about by the higher year-on-year increase in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages category, which rose to 9.7 percent during the month from 8.1 percent in the previous month.

Food inflation alone rose to 10.0 percent in September from 8.2 percent in August.

This was due mainly to the higher inflation rate for rice (17.9 percent from 8.7 percent), meat (1.3 percent from -0.1 percent), fruits (11.6 percent from 9.6 percent), and corn (1.6 percent from 0.9 percent).

The prices of fish, vegetables, sugar, eggs and dairy products, and bread and other cereals recorded slower rates of inflation.

Rice accounts for 9 percent of the consumer basket.

Transport, with an inflation rate of 1.2 percent during the month from 0.2 percent in the previous month, also contributed to the rise in headline inflation.

Higher annual increases were also noted in the indices of health with 4.1 percent inflation from 3.9 percent; recreation, sport, and culture,