President Marcos' chief economic manager said the government's swift and resolute actions to combat inflation were responsible for the considerable decrease in consumer prices recorded in October.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno lauded the 4.9 percent headline inflation registered for the last month, highlighting its dip below the average rates seen in September and the previous year.

He also said the October inflation rate fell below the projected range of 5.1 percent to 5.9 percent set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

"This positive development is the result of the government's decisive and timely actions in mitigating inflation, a testament to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s firm resolve to protect the purchasing power of Filipino families,” Diokno said.

The October inflation rate brought the 10-month average to 6.4 percent, which approached the Development Budget Coordination Committee's (DBCC) estimated range of 5.0 percent to 6.0 percent for the full year of 2023.

However, it remained significantly higher than the government's inflation target of two percent to four percent for the year.

The downtrend in inflation was mainly due to slower year-on-year increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages (7.0 percent) and restaurants and accommodation services (6.3 percent).

In October, the three primary commodity groups that made the highest contributions to overall inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages, accounting for 2.6 percentage points out of the total 4.9 percent,

It was followed by restaurants and accommodation services (0.6 percentage points); and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.6 percentage points).

Meanwhile, non-food inflation continued to be within the government’s target range of two percent to four percent as it decelerated to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent the previous month.

The main contributors to non-food inflation were food and beverage serving services (0.6 percentage points), housing rentals (0.5 percentage points), personal care (0.21 percentage points), as well as passenger transport (0.16 percentage points).

The sustained elevated inflation in restaurants remains partly attributed to the second-round effects of higher prices of food commodities and high demand for these services.

Meanwhile, the continued high rental cost remains mainly due to increased demand as economic activities normalize after the pandemic.

On passenger transport, inflation was primarily due to the increase in transport fares, particularly those that were implemented for UV express vehicles and LRTs beginning in August and jeepneys in October.

The slower deceleration of fuel prices also contributed to the sustained transport inflation for the month.

Core inflation, which excludes selected volatile food and energy items, continued to decline to 5.3 percent from 5.9 percent in the previous month, bringing the average core inflation to 7.0 percent.

The National Capital Region (NCR) also saw a downtrend in inflation to 4.9 percent from 6.1 percent in September 2023.

All regions outside NCR also recorded slower inflation rates, except for Region VII (Central Visayas), which posted a higher annual increase.