Philippines: Inflation quickens in January above gov’t target

Consumer prices rose beyond the government’s target in January this year due to higher food costs, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported. The country’s headline inflation continued its uptrend as it accelerated further to 4.2 percent at the beginning of the year, the highest recorded since February 2019. Inflation last December was registered at 3.5 percent, while in January 2020, 2.9 percent. The latest inflation figure is also above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ forecast range of 3.3 percent to 4.1 percent. “The overall inflation was primarily pushed up by the higher annual increment of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.2 percent during the month, from 4.8 percent in December 2020,” PSA said in a statement. In particular,the price of pork rose 17.1 percent in January.Also contributing to the uptrend were the higher ...