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Philippines: Headline inflation slows to 4-month low
THE country’s headline inflation eased to a four-month low of 4.2 percent in November from 4.6 percent in October, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In a briefing on Tuesday, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said this is still higher than the 3.3 percent seen in November last year.
It was, however, the lowest recorded since the 4.0 percent seen in July.
The latest figure brought the year-to-date average inflation at 4.5 percent, which is still above the government’s 2- to 4-percent target.
Mapa said the downtrend in the overall inflation was primarily brought about by the slowdown in the inflation for the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index, which slid at 3.9 percent during the month, from 5.3 percent in October 2021.
“This was due to the slower price increase of vegetables with an inflation of -1.8 percent from 11.4 percent in October 2021; fish like tamba with a 7.9-percent inflation from 9.5 percent; and meat with an inflation of 10.7 percent from 11.9 percent,” said Mapa.
Mapa said lower inflation was also recorded in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 7.5 percent, and furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house at 2.4 percent.
On the other hand, inflation rates moved faster for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 4.6 percent, and transport at 8.8 percent.
Core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, decelerated to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent in October. In November 2020, it settled at 3.2 percent.
Inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) likewise went down to 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in October 2021 and 3.5 percent in November last year due to the slower annual hikes in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 1.7 percent.
For areas outside NCR, inflation also slowed to 4.5 percent from 5.0 percent in October. It was, however, higher than the 3.3 percent posted in November last year.
Inflation for the bottom 30 percent households, meanwhile, likewise decelerated to 4.2 percent from 4.8 percent a month earlier. It was recorded at 3.6 percent in November 2020.
Food inflation slowdown
In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that while there was a slowdown in inflation for food, on a month-on-month basis, both meat and pork recorded positive inflation at 2.4 and 4.2 percent, respectively.
NEDA citing the latest data from the Department of Agriculture (DA) said that there was a slower pork import arrival with only a 42-percent utilization of the expanded pork minimum access volume (MAV) as of end-November.
The unreleased inventory of frozen pork is also reported at 76,953 metric tons.
NEDA said the slow importation and release of inventory, together with higher demand due to the Christmas season, led to higher average pork prices in November.
“Pork prices continuously went down month on month from July to early October. This means that our policy to temporarily import pork has been effective. However, the uptick in prices in November shows that we need to further ease administrative requirements for the unloading and distribution of stocks to encourage more importation and help bring back pork prices to their pre-African swine fever level,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said.
Chua said the government is also addressing the increase in oil prices.
He said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has started distributing cash grants worth P1 billion through its Pantawid Pasada Program to qualified public utility jeepney operators.
As of November 24, around 78,000 out of 136,000 target beneficiaries have received fuel subsidies.
Chua said the government also increased the passenger capacity for public utility vehicles (PUVs) from 50 percent to 70 percent in areas under Alert Level 2 to increase mobility and help PUV drivers earn more.
NEDA recommends further increasing passenger capacity to up to 100 percent for all transport types as vaccination rates increase.
“Enhancing people’s mobility while observing health protocols is crucial as we sustain our economic recovery amid the threat of the Omicron variant. As restrictions ease, we recommend increasing public transport capacity to 100 percent as vaccination rates increase to reduce crowding in terminals and help protect commuters and drivers from future oil price shocks,” Chua said.
Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/12/08/business/top-business/headline-inflation-slows-to-4-month-low/1825103