The country’s inflation rate posted its slowest growth at 2.8 percent in January this year, the slowest since October 2020.
Lower headline inflation attributed to slower growth of prices in food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, and other utilities expenses such as water and electricity.
Food inflation also eased to 3.3 percent, which was the slowest since March 2022, down from 11.2 percent in January last year.
However, the growth of rice prices maintained at a fast pace to 22.6 percent from 19.6 percent in December 2023.
The core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, also declined to 3.8 percent.
Inflation rates in the National Capital Region (NCR) and areas outside NCR both had the same growth rate as the headline inflation at 2.8 percent.
Inflation hits 2.8% in January, lowest since October 2020
At a glance
The country's inflation rate in January this year marked its slowest growth in over three years, registering at 2.8 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
This means that the inflation rate, or the increase in prices of goods and services, moved at a slower pace during the period compared to the 8.7 percent in January 2023 and 3.9 percent recorded in December 2023.
The latest inflation rate is also the lowest since the 2.3 percent recorded in October 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This downtrend was attributed to slower year-on-year growth of prices in food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, and other utilities expenses such as water and electricity, the PSA said in the report.
Food inflation also eased to 3.3 percent, which was the slowest since March 2022, down from 11.2 percent in January last year and 5.5 percent in December 2023.
However, the growth in the prices of rice was maintained at a fast pace to 22.6 percent from 19.6 percent in December 2023.
Despite the uptrend in rice inflation, it only contributed 1.3 percent to the overall headline inflation.
On the contrary, rice inflation for the bottom 30 percent income households heavily impacted their overall inflation rate.
The inflation rate for these low-income households stood at 3.6 percent, down from 9.7 percent in January 2023 and 5.0 percent in December 2023.
Of this figure, rice contributed almost 3.0 percentage points as the weight of rice to the inflation rate for these households is posted at 17.8 percent.
Meanwhile, other food items such as vegetables and seafood posted slower growths, which according to National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa, offset the huge increase in rice inflation.
The core inflation, which does not include selected food and energy items, also declined to 3.8 percent from 7.4 percent in January and 4.4 percent in December last year.
Inflation rates in the National Capital Region (NCR) and areas outside NCR both had the same growth rate as the headline inflation at 2.8 percent.