PSA: Inflation slows at 4.4% in January 2019

During a press conference, National Statistician Lisa Grace Bersales said, “The slowdown of inflation in January 2019 was mainly driven by the deceleration in the annual increments of food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and transport.” (Photo: Ja Ma/Unsplash)

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) continues to deliver positive news to Filipino consumers as it reported that inflation in the country slowed down in January.

According to PSA, the inflation or the rate of increase in the prices of goods has dropped to 4.4 percent from 5.1 percent recorded in December.

During a press conference, National Statistician Lisa Grace Bersales said, “The slowdown of inflation in January 2019 was mainly driven by the deceleration in the annual increments of food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and transport.”

Lower annual increases, Bersales added, were also noted in the indices of the following commodity groups: clothing and footwear at 2.5 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 4.

0 percent; health at 4.3 percent; and transport at 2.5 percent.

However, the annual rate of furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index rose to 3.9 percent.

Moreover, the PSA noted that year-on-year inflation continued to slow down in the National Capital Region (NCR), registering an annual rate of 4.6 percent in January 2019 from 4.8 percent in December.

It added that annual inflation in areas outside NCR (AONCR) also dropped to 4.4 percent from the 5.3 percent in the previous month. In all regions of AONCR, inflation was recorded the slowest in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 3.1 percent, while the fastest was seen in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which is at 6.

1 percent.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier forecasted that inflation will hit at an average of 3.2 percent in 2019. The central bank earlier this month noted that “price pressures have started to dissipate with inflation expected to fall within target for 2019 and 2020.”