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Higher oil and food prices, lower electricity rates, moderate rice prices and a strong peso could have slowed the country’s headline inflation to 2.9 percent or rebound to 3.7 percent this month from 3.3 percent in November, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Tuesday.
PHOTO BY RUY L. MARTINEZ
“Higher prices for domestic petroleum products and key agricultural items contributed to upward price pressures during the month,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno told reporters on Viber, ahead of the release of the figures. inflation officials from December to early January.
Local oil companies raised the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene by 75, 85 and 80 cents per liter, respectively, on December 22, which Diokno said “could be partially offset by the downward adjustment of electricity rates in Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) – areas served, along with slightly lower rice prices and continued appreciation of the peso ”.
The energy distributor lowered its rate per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for households consuming 200 kWh per month by P0.0352 this month.
The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that rice prices fell in the first week of December. The average retail price of regular milled rice fell to P36.29 a kilogram that week from P36.43 a kilogram seven days earlier.
The local currency is currently trading within the area of P48: $ 1, compared to the closing rate of P50.64 at the end of December 2019.
“Going forward, the BSP will continue to monitor economic and financial developments to ensure that its core mandate of price stability leading to balanced and sustainable economic growth is achieved,” Diokno said.
His comments came after the central bank raised its inflation forecast on December 17 from 2.4 percent to 2.6 percent for 2020 and from 2.7 percent to 3.2 percent for 2021. The Outlook for 2022 remained at 2.9 percent.
“The balance of risks to the inflation outlook is also tilting downward from 2020 to 2022, due in large part to potential disruptions to national and global economic activity amid the ongoing pandemic,” Diokno said at the time.
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