Inflation Slightly Eases to 8.6% for February 2023
Photo credit: PSA
Inflation rate in the Philippines went down to 8.6% last February 2023 from 8.7% in January 2023, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The slight decrease in inflation rate was attributed to the partial decrease in the prices of food and petroleum products.
The PCOO said the miniscule lowering in the inflation rate emphasized that the government's efforts in implementing various programs and initiatives to address inflation are continuously ongoing.
Meanwhile, the PSA also reported that the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all items in the Philippines has decelerated to 0.3% in February 2023, from a 1.0% increase in January 2023.
The PSA report stated that slower monthly increments were seen in the deseasonalized CPI of several commodity groups for this month.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages group saw a modest increase of 0.1%, while the alcoholic beverages and tobacco group recorded a slightly higher increase of 0.4%. Non-food items also increased by 0.6%, with the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group increasing by 0.3%. Finally, personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services increased by 0.5%.
The seasonally adjusted CPI is used to identify underlying inflation trends in the economy, while deseasonalized CPI measures inflation by removing the effects of seasonality. This helps to give a more accurate representation of the true inflation rate in the country.
The report also noted that the February 2023 CPI level is 3.2% higher compared to the same period last year. This is slightly lower than the 3.3% increase recorded in January 2023.