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The overall year-on-year rise in the prices of general use goods rebounded for the fifth consecutive month in February to its fastest pace in 25 months, the government reported this morning.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed headline inflation was 4.7% last month, increasing from 4.2% in January 2021 and 2.6% in February 2020.
The February inflation result marked the fastest pace in 25 months or from 5.1% in December 2018.
The last figure of the title is lower than the median of 4.8% in a Business world survey conducted at the end of last week, but falls within the estimate of 4.3% -5.1% given by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for February.
So far this year, inflation has stood at 4.5%, beyond the 2-4% target of the BSP for the year.
Core inflation, which discounted volatile food and fuel prices, stood at 3.5% in February, picking up from 3.4% a year earlier and 3.2% a year earlier. It averaged 3.5% so far this year.
“The upward trend in inflation in the country was mainly due to the rebound in inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages weighted heavily at 6.7% during the month, from 6.1% in January 2021,” the PSA said in a statement.
The food alone index accelerated to seven percent in February from 6.6% the previous month and 2.1% a year ago.
Similarly, the February inflation rate for the poorest 30% of households rebounded to 5.5% from 4.9% in January 2021 and 2.1% in February 2020. The inflation rate for this segment was the fastest since reading 6.3% in December 2018. – Lourdes O. Pilar
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