PH inflation further declines to 4.1% in November 2023

The Philippines’ overall inflation level further declined to 4.1 percent in November 2023 from 4.9 percent in the previous month, which is well within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s forecast of 4.0 to 4.8 percent for the month

This brings the year-to-date (YTD) overall inflation rate to 6.2 percent, closer to the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) assumption of 5.0 to 6.0 percent for the full year 2023.

“The sharp drop in inflation for the month of November is a testament to the Marcos, Jr. administration’s whole-of-government effort to moderate rising commodity prices while protecting the most vulnerable sectors from its effects,” Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

The major drivers of the downtrend in inflation for November were lower year-on-year (YoY) inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 7.0 percent in October 2023 to 5.7 percent); transport (from 1.0 percent to -0.8 percent); and restaurants and accommodation services (from 6.3 percent to 5.6 percent).

Meanwhile, the top three commodity groups that contributed to the November 2023 overall inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages with 2.1 percentage points (ppt) out of the overall 4.1 percent; restaurants and accommodation services (0.5 ppt); and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.5 ppt).

Food inflation also slowed down to 5.8 percent in November from 7.1 percent in the previous month. In the same period a year ago, food inflation was significantly higher at 10.3 percent.

Food continued to have the biggest inflation contribution for the month at 2.0 ppt or 49.0 percent of the overall inflation rate.

The main contributors to food inflation were rice (1.4 ppt); fish and other seafood (0.3 ppt); and milk and other dairy products and eggs (0.2 ppt).

Among food commodities, rice remains the biggest contributor to headline inflation (1.4 ppt), as its inflation continued to accelerate at 15.9 percent YoY and 2.7 percent month-on-month (MoM).

Rice inflation in November still increased despite the harvest season after declining by 4.0 percent MoM in October, partly due to an uptrend in the cost of grains caused by relatively lower palay output and coming