October inflation up 6.7%, still over 9-year high, but price pressures easing

Inflation in October rose 6.7 percent year-on-year, the same rate of increase in prices of basic commodities as last September, an over nine-year high.

But National Statistician Lisa Grace S. Bersales noted that the month-on-month increase in prices of basic commodities further eased to 0.3 percent last month from 0.8 percent in September and the peak so far this year of 0.9 percent last August.

This meant that while consumer prices still rose last month, they were not as fast or as high as last September’s increases.

“There seems to be a slowing in increase of prices,” Bersales told a press conference.

To recall, the government issued orders in September aimed at easing importation of food products to boost supply and bring down prices.

The year-on-year increase in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages slightly slowed to 9.4 percent last October from September’s 9.7 percent.

Prices of rice and fish inched up but those of corn, meat, fruits and vegetables declined that month.

Inflation in Metro Manila also slowed to 6.1 percent year-on-year in October from 6.3 percent last September.

“There is a pattern of easing of inflation in Metro Manila,” Bersales said.  /muf