Inflation up 3.7% in March

MANILA, Philippines: Inflation accelerated further last month due to faster increases in key food items, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Friday.

For two consecutive months, inflation picked up 3.7 percent in March from February's 3.4 percent but was lower than the 7.6 percent recorded in the same month last year.

It is well within the estimate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the month at 3.4- to 4.2 percent but slightly lower than the 3.8-percent median in a Manila Times poll of economists.

Despite the uptick, rates remained within the BSP's 2.0-to 4.0-percent target for the fourth straight month.

«The uptrend in the overall inflation in March 2024 was primarily influenced by the higher year-on-year increase in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 5.6 percent during the month from 4.6 percent in February 2024,» the PSA said in a statement.

Food and alcoholic beverages accounted for over half — 57.3 percent share or 2.1 percentage points — of overall inflation.

The uptrend was also fueled by the 2.1 percent rise in transport during the month from an annual decline of 1.2 percent in February 2024.

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Food inflation increased to 5.7 percent last month from 4.8 percent in February but was lower than the 9.5 percent in March 2023.

Similarly, rice inflation further rose to 24.4 percent last month from 23.7 percent in February, accounting for 1.8 percentage points of overall inflation.

This is the highest since the 24.6 percent recorded also in February of 2009.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items, further decelerated in March to 3.4 percent from the 3.6 percent seen in the previous month and 8.0 percent a year earlier.

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Year to date, headline inflation and core inflation were recorded at 3.3 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.