Philippine Inflation Rises to 3.9%

Consumer prices in the Philippines further rose at a faster pace in February as prices of food and beverage as well as “sin” products continued to increase partly as a result of the first tax reform package, PNA reported. In a report Tuesday, Philippine Statistics Authority’s data showed that using 2012 as the new base year, the headline inflation rate jumped 3.9% last month, the fastest rate of increase in prices of basic goods since August 2014’s 4.2%. Using the old consumer price index series based on 2006 prices, inflation hit 4.5%, also an over three-year high. “The uptrend resulted from the faster annual gain recorded in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 4.8% and the double-digit annual increment in alcoholic beverages and tobacco index at 16.9%,” the PSA explained. “Lower annual hikes were, however, noticed in the indices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 2.6%; communication, 0.2%; and recreation and culture, 1.4%,” the PSA said.