2.8% inflation in Jan, lowest since Oct. 2020

MANILA – The country's headline inflation in January this year further eased to 2.8 percent, its lowest level since October 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday.

In a briefing, PSA Undersecretary percent). Inflation in the Nationand National Rice inflation, howeval Capital Region (NCR) Statistician Dennis Mapa er, went up to 22.6 percent also eased to 2.8 percent said last month's headline in January from 19.6 perfrom 3.5 percent a month inflation was also down cent in the previous month. earlier. from 3.9 percent in December Mapa said other conFor areas outside NCR, last year. tributors to the downtrend inflation went down to 2.8

It was also down from in inflation were housing, percent from 4.0 percent in 8.7 percent in January 2023 water, electricity, gas and December 2023. and the lowest recorded other fuels with a slower For the bottom 30 persince the 2.3 percent in annual increase of 0.7 percent income households, October 2020. cent from 1.5 percent in inflation also slowed down

Core inflation, which December 2023. to 3.6 percent from 5.0 perexcludes volatile oil and food items, also decelerated to 3.8 percent from 4.4 percent in December 2023.

"The downtrend in the overall inflation in January 2024 was primarily brought about by the slower annual increment of food and nonalcoholic beverages at 3.5 percent in January 2024 from 5.4 percent in the previous month," Mapa said.

Food inflation eased to 3.3 percent in January from 5.5 percent in December last year.

The deceleration was due to the decrease in the prices of corn (-4.3 percent from -3.5 percent), oils and fats (-4.3 percent from -3.6 percent), meat (-0.7 percent from 0.2 percent), and sugar (-1.0 percent from 0.1

cent a month prior. Inflation outlook

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the inflation rate in January settled within its forecast range of 2.8 to 3.6 percent.

"This inflation outturn is consistent with the BSP expectations that inflation will likely moderate in Q1

(

BING GONZALES BANGLADESH Ambassador to the Philippines F.M. Borhan Uddin (standing, center) personally witnesses the memorandum of agreement signing between SixEleven Global Services Corp., headed by chairperson Joji Ilagan Bian, and Bangladesh-based Aprosoft Consulting and Training headed by CEO Javed Ahmad, for Business Process Outsourcing, software development, education, linkages and other essential collaborations held at SixEleven on Feb. 5, 2024. Also witnessing the event are SixEleven executives William Wijangco, COO, and chief support officer Lovely June Gacho.