Philippine inflation rises to 2.3% in October

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO / Jerome Cristobal

October’s headline inflation accelerated due to higher prices in food, nonalcoholic beverages and transport, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

Preliminary data from the agency showed that the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 2.3 percent year-on-year in October, up from 1.9 percent in September. However, the current pace of inflation remains slower than the 4.9 percent recorded last year.

READ: PH inflation likely picked up in Oct

This also settled within the 2- to 2.8-percent forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the month, and a notch lower compared to the 2.4 percent average inflation forecast in an Inquirer poll of eight economists conducted last week.

“The uptrend in the overall inflation in October 2024 was primarily influenced by the faster annual increment in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.9 percent during the month from 1.4 percent in September 2024,” the PSA said in a statement.

Inflation print in October marked the fastest growth in two months or since the 3.3 percent logged in August. Stripping out seasonality factors, month-on-month inflation increases by 0.1 percent in October.

For the first ten months, inflation averaged 3.3 percent, still lower from the 6.4 percent in October 2023.