PSA says inflation slowed down to 6% in November 2018

According to PSA, slowdowns in the annual increase were noted in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages which is at eight percent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 4.2 percent; and communication at 0.4 percent. (Photo: Ja Ma/Unsplash)

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, December 5, delivered a good news to Filipino consumers as it reported that the inflation rate or the increase in the prices of goods eased to six percent in November 2018.

This showed a 0.7 percent decrease from the October’s 6.7 percent.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier projected the inflation in November to settle between 5.8 to 6.6 percent, while the Department of Finance (DOF) expected inflation to ease at 6.3 percent.

According to PSA, slowdowns in the annual increase were noted in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages which is at eight percent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 4.2 percent; and communication at 0.4 percent.

The education index, it said, continued to post an annual rate of -3.8 percent, while the transportation cost maintained the 8.9 percent annual rate.

The PSA also noted that the annual gain in food index slowed down to 7.7 percent from the 9.2 percent recorded in October.

Slower annual increments were observed in the indices of the following food groups: rice (8.1 percent); corn (4.8 percent); meat (6.3 percent); fish (12.5 percent); fruits (3.9 percent); vegetables (11.5 percent); and sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery (10.5 percent).

Moreover, the inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) decelerated to 5.6 percent compared to the 6.1 percent in October.

Likewise, the rise in the price of goods and services in areas outside NCR also eased to 6.2 percent.

Despite this, President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday approved the recommendation of his economic team to proceed with the implementation of the second tranche of the excise tax on fuel set for next year, amid inflation being one of the major problems in the country.

But former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier said she believes that the Duterte administration can ease up the inflation quickly, just like how her administration was able to bring down the inflation rate when it hit 6.6 percent in 2009.

[READ: Arroyo urges economic managers to ‘move faster’ to curb inflation]