Inflation eased to 2-year low of 2.4% in July

MANILA, Philippines — Inflation further eased to 2.4 percent year-on-year in July mainly due to stable food prices, including declining retail prices of rice, the government reported Tuesday.

The rate of increase in prices of basic commodities last month was the slowest in two years, matching the rate posted in July 2017.

Alongside the July 2017 figure, last month’s headline inflation rate was also the lowest recorded since the 2.2 percent in December 2016.

“The main driver in the downward trend of inflation in July was food and non-alcoholic beverages,” National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told a press conference.

In the case of rice, the Filipino food staple registered the third straight month of declining prices—down 2.9 percent year-on-year in July, down 1.7 percent in June, and down 0.7 percent in May, Mapa said.

The last time that rice prices declined year-on-year was in June 2016, he added.

Mapa noted that rice prices last year were “really high” such that there was a drop observed during the past three month.

The government had also attributed the dip in prices to the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law since March.  /muf