The country’s inflation rate slowed to 1.5 percent in November, easing from 1.7 percent in October and 2.5 percent in the same month last year, largely due to lower food prices, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday, Dec. 5. Headline inflation averaged 1.6 percent during...
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned that the recent plunge of the peso, which has hit new lows, could reignite inflation despite projections that the November rate would settle below the central bank’s target band The BSP on Friday, Nov. 28, cited “higher electricity and oil prices,...
Despite inflation climbing to a six-month high in September, Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. (OCBC) still expects consumer prices in the Philippines to rise by less than two percent on average for the entire year. Average headline inflation stood at 1.7 percent as of...
Inflation rose to a six-month high of 1.7 percent in September, mainly due to more expensive fuel and higher vegetable prices following the onslaught of typhoons, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday, Oct. 7. The latest PSA data showed that the country’s inflation rate...
The rate of increase in consumer prices has accelerated last month due to jump in food prices, with recent weather events heavily impacting the cost of vegetables, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday, Sept. 5. Headline inflation accelerated to 1.5 percent in August 2025,...
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects August 2025 inflation to accelerate to a median of 1.4 percent, a modest increase from July but a significant deceleration from last year. The central bank projects a range of 1.0 percent to 1.8 percent for the month. The forecast is a jump from...
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has downgraded its projection of the Philippines’ rice imports this year by 500,000 metric tons (MT) due to the 60-day import ban that will come into effect beginning next month. In its report on the global grains trade, the USDA’s Foreign...
Despite recent interest rate cuts by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), inflation hitting nearly six-year lows in recent months, and still-muted second-quarter growth in some sectors, further reductions in key borrowing costs are seen as necessary. “We think the second-quarter GDP [gross...
As Filipinos evolve alongside technology, the marketplace tradition once reserved for the hustle and bustle of wet markets is finding new life in the digital realm. The art of “tawad” or haggling is seen growing in the world of online shopping, yet its brushstroke still paints the same...
With rice prices still seen to have dropped further recently, the central bank has forecast that increases in consumer prices likely slowed even more in July, following the five-and-a-half-year lows of 1.4 percent in June and 1.3 percent in May. As such, private-sector economists said that the...
Annual consumer price increases slowed further to 1.8 percent in March 2025, down from 2.1 percent in February, as food price hikes eased mainly due to lower rice prices, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported. March inflation was the slowest in nearly five years, or since May 2020—at...
Consumer price hikes dropped sharply to 2.1 percent in February, marking the lowest rate in five months, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Data from the PSA on Wednesday, March 5, revealed headline inflation slowed significantly from the 2.9 percent rate in January. It...
