The Philippines’ headline inflation continued to exhibit a faster pace as it picked up to 2.7 percent in July 2020. This brings the year-to-date inflation for 2020 at 2.5 percent. In June 2020, inflation was posted at 2.5 percent and in July 2019, 2.4 percent.
The acceleration in the overall inflation was mainly caused by the jump in the inflation of the transport index at 6.3 percent during the month, from 2.4 percent in June 2020.
Annual increments were also higher in the indices of the following commodity groups:
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 19.3 percent;
Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 0.8 percent; and
Restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.5 percent.
Except for the health index whose annual rate remained at 2.8 percent, the six remaining commodity groups exhibited slower annual increases during the month.
Similarly, core inflation went up further to 3.3 percent in July 2020 from 3.0 percent in the previous month and 3.2 percent in July a year ago.
Meanwhile, inflation for the food index at the national level continued to decelerate as it posted 2.5 percent in July 2020, from 2.7 percent in the previous month. In July 2019, food inflation was registered at 1.7 percent.
Among the food groups, the indices of rice and sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery were still on a downtrend as their annual growth rates during the month fell to 1.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Annual declines were observed in the indices of rice since May 2019 and in sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery since July 2019. Likewise, the annual rate of corn index dropped to 0.1 percent during the month, from a 0.6 percent annual increment in the previous month. Moreover, annual hikes slowed down in the indices of fish at 3.8 percent; fruits, 8.5 percent; and vegetables, 0.9 percent.
On the contrary, annual mark-ups were higher in the indices of meat at 4.9 percent; oils and fats, 2.3 percent; and food products, not elsewhere classified, 5.7 percent. The indices of other food groups such as other cereals, flour, cereal preparation, bread, pasta, and other bakery products; and milk, cheese and egg retained their previous month’s annual growth rates of 2.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.
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