The headline inflation at the national level accelerated further to 3.5 percent in December 2020, from 3.3 percent in November 2020. This is the highest inflation recorded since March 2019.
Inflation in December 2019 stood at 2.5 percent.
The uptrend in the country’s inflation was primarily brought about by the increase in the inflation of heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 4.8 percent during the month, from 4.3 percent in November 2020.
Inflation for food index at the country level jumped to 4.9 percent in December 2020, from 4.5 percent in the previous month. In December 2019, inflation for food was registered at 1.7 percent.
The annual rate of the index of vegetables soared further to 19.7 percent in December 2020. Likewise, a double-digit inflation of 10.0 percent was observed in meat during the month. In addition, higher annual gains were also noted in the indices of oils and fats at 2.7 percent; and fruits, 6.3 percent.
The indices of rice and corn both posted a 0.1 percent annual increase after registering negative annual rates in the previous month.
The rest of the food groups recorded slower annual increments, except for the index of sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery index which retained its previous month’s annual rate of 0.4 percent.
The full-year inflation figure for 2020 is 2.6%, within the government's target range
source: PSA