Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Tuesday (January 5) that headline inflation — the overall price increase of goods and service — slightly picked up in December at 1.5 percent, compared to November’s 2.7 percent. However, the figure is notably lower than the 2.7 percent rate registered in December 2014.
Core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy prices because of their volatility, also picked up at 2.1 percent from 1.8 percent the previous month.
Annualized price increases were observed in the induce of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.4 percent), health (1.9 percent), transport (2.2 percent), and recreation and culture (1.1 percent).
The PSA noted that other commodity groups retained the previous months’ rates. The food index grew by 1.8 percent, while the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels continued to contract at a rate of 0.3 percent.
December’s rates subsequently brought the the average inflation rate for 2015 to 1.4 percent. It marked the lowest annual figure for the Aquino administration. The rate is also lower than 2014’s average figure of 4.1 percent. Similarly, average annual core inflation stands at 2.1 percent, from 2014’s 3.0 percent.
“Price increases were largely due to the upbeat demand during the holiday season. Inclement weather conditions, primarily Typhoon Nona, also adversely affected agricultural areas, hampering the production, delivery, and transport of products, which in turn pushed up prices” said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
“The generally low inflation environment in the past year was expected. It was largely due to favorable supply-side factors such as relatively lower domestic retail prices of corn, oil, and rice, lower international oil prices, and the contraction in the prices of housing and other utilities.”
