November inflation shoots up to 3.3%

Food supply stalled by the damage wrought by recent strong typhoons and the African swine fever in the case of pork products pushed inflation up to 3.3 percent year-on-year in November.

For the poor whose consumption basket mostly consisted of more expensive food, the rate of increase in prices of basic commodities rose to 3.6 percent year-on-year last month, the fastest since the 4.3 percent posted in February last year, Philippine Statistics Authority data on Friday showed

Last month’s headline inflation matched the 3.3 percent in March last year, which was the highest rate since February 2019’s 3.8 percent.

Inflation averaged 2.6 percent during the first 11 months, within the government’s 2 to 4 percent target band and at the upper range of the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s updated forecast of 2.4 to 2.6 percent for 2020.

Compared with October, prices in November rose 1 percent month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa told a press conference that faster price increases in fish, vegetables and meat pushed inflation faster last month as supply and delivery of food products were affected by a string of typhoons even since late October.

As such, food inflation climbed to 4.5 percent in November from 2.1 percent a month ago and a deflation of 0.2 percent a year ago.

In particular, vegetable prices jumped 14.6 percent year-on-year; meat, up 8.2 percent; fruits, up 5.8 percent; fish, up 5.6 percent, and sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery, up 0.4 percent.

Rice remained in a deflation of 0.1 percent year-on-year nationwide even as prices in Metro Manila alone rose by 3.9 percent also due to supply bottlenecks.

On a month-on-month basis, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 2.2 percent from October levels. —Ben O. de Vera