Inflation continued to accelerate in July, the government reported this morning.
Preliminary results from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed the prices of widely used goods increasing by 5.7% in July, faster than the 5.2% recorded in June and 2.4% in July 2017.
The latest print was within the 5.1-5.8% estimate range provided by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Department of Economic Research, but was higher than the 5.5% median inflation yielded in a BusinessWorld poll of economists last week.
Year-to-date, headline inflation averaged 4.5%, above the BSP’s 2-4% target for the year.
“The uptrend was mainly due to the 7.1% annual rate recorded in food and non-alcoholic beverages index. Nine out of 11 commodity divisions registered higher annual upticks during the month,” the PSA noted in a statement.
Likewise, the food alone index in July was higher at 6.8% compared to June’s 5.8% and July 2017’s 2.9%.
Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy items, was recorded at 4.5% in July and averaging 3.5% so far this year. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
