Inflation in the Philippines fell for the fourth straight month in January 2024, largely due to slower increases in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices.
According to National Statistician and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) chief Claire Dennis Mapa, inflation dropped to 2.8% in January 2024, down from 3.9% in December 2023. The slower inflation was attributed to a reduced growth rate in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, which decreased to 3.5% from the previous month’s 5.4%.
Core inflation also slowed to 3.8% in January 2024, lower than the previous month’s 4.4% and significantly lower than January 2023’s 7.4%. The decreased prices of vegetables, tubers, cooking bananas, and other food items played a major role in the decline of food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation.
Other factors contributing to the inflation dip for food and non-alcoholic beverages are fish and other seafood with a 1.2% inflation rate and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals with a -0.7% inflation rate.
The slower annual increase in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels also contributed to the overall inflation downtrend, dropping to 0.7% from 1.5% in December 2023.
This January’s inflation falls within the forecast range of 2.8% to 3.6% by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Food inflation also slowed to 3.3%, down from 5.5% last month and 11.2% in January 2023.
The latest inflation print is the lowest recorded since October 2020, according to the PSA.
