The overall year-on-year increase in prices of widely used goods picked up to its fastest pace in three months in October, the government reported this morning.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed headline inflation at 2.5% last month, picking up from the 2.3% pace in September.

The October inflation result marked the fastest pace in three months or since the 2.7% reading in July 2020.

The latest headline figure is higher than the 2.4% median in a BusinessWorld poll conducted late last week and falls within the 1.9-2.7% estimate given by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for October.

Year to date, inflation settled at 2.5%, still within the BSP’s 2-4% target this year, but above the 2.3% forecast for the entire year.

Core inflation, which discounted volatile prices of food and fuel, stood at three percent in October – slower than the 3.2% in the previous month, but faster than the 2.6% a year earlier. It averaged 3.1% so far this year.

“Higher overall inflation was primarily brought about by the increase in the inflation of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.1% during the month, from 1.5% in September 2020,” the PSA said in the report.

“Likewise, annual mark-ups were higher in the indices of education at 1.2% [from one percent in September], and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.4% [from 2.3%],” it added.

Food inflation registered at 2.1% in October, compared with the 1.5% rate in September.

Likewise, the PSA reported preliminary figures for inflation as experienced by low-income families for October. That month, inflation for the bottom 30% of income households grew 2.9% – faster than the 2.8% growth in September and the 0.1% decline in October 2019.

The consumer price index (CPI) for the bottom 30% reconfigures the model basket of goods in order to reflect the spending patterns of the poor. This compared to the headline CPI which measures inflation as experienced by the average household. — Jobo E. Hernandez

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