The Philippines’ headline inflation or overall inflation slowed down further to 2.8 percent in January 2024. This is the lowest inflation rate since the 2.3 percent inflation rate recorded in October 2020. Inflation rate was recorded at 3.9 percent in December 2023, while it was 8.7 percent in January 2023.
The downtrend in the overall inflation in January 2024 was primarily brought about by the slower annual increment of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.5 percent in January 2024 from 5.4 percent in the previous month. Also contributing to the downtrend was housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with slower annual increase of 0.7 percent during the month from 1.5 percent in December 2023.
Lower annual increments were also noted in the indices of the following commodity groups during the month:
a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 8.4 percent from 9.0 percent;
b. Clothing and footwear, 3.8 percent from 4.2 percent;
c. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 3.9 percent from 4.5 percent;
d. Health, 3.3 percent from 3.7 percent;
e. Recreation, sport and culture, 4.0 percent from 4.2 percent;
f. Restaurants and accommodation services, 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent; and
g. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 4.0 percent from 4.6 percent.
Inflation slows down further to 2.8 percent in January 2024
In addition, annual decreases were noted in the indices of transport at 0.3 percent in January 2024 from 0.4 percent annual increase in the previous month, and financial services at 0.6 percent annual decrease during the month from zero percent annual rate in December 2023.
On the contrary, the index of education services exhibited a higher annual increase of 3.8 percent during the month from an annual increment of 3.5 percent in December 2023.
The index of information and communication remained at its previous month’s annual rate of 0.5 percent.
The top three commodity groups contributing to the January 2024 overall inflation were the following:
a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 47.1 percent share or 1.3 percentage points;
b. Restaurants and accommodation services with 18.9 percent share or 0.5 percentage point; and
c. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 6.5 percent share or 0.2 percentage point.
Food inflation at the national level eased to 3.3 percent in January 2024 from 5.5 percent in the previous month. In January 2023, food inflation was higher at 11.2 percent.
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