The rate of increase in consumer prices accelerated further last month to its highest level since January 2019 due to higher costs of meat, fish and rice, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday, March 5.
The country's headline inflation clocked in at 4.7 percent in February, higher compared with 4.2 percent in the previous month and 2.6 percent in the same month last year.
The February figure brought the first-two month inflation rate average to 4.45 percent, above the government's target of 2.0 percent to 4.0 percent.
Contributing also to the uptrend in the overall inflation during the month were the higher annual increments recorded in the indices of the following commodity groups:
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 12.2 percent;
- Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 0.9 percent;
- Health, 2.9 percent;
- Transport, 10.4 percent;
- Communication, 0.3 percent; and
- Restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 3.2 percent.