Philippine core inflation dips to 2.1% in July

And headline inflation rose to 2.8%.

The Philippines’ core inflation fell to 2.1% YoY in July, 0.5 points lower than last month’s 2.6%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Headline inflation climbed from 2.7% to 2.8%. The country recorded higher upticks in indices in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (2.2%); transport (3.8%); education (2.3%; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services at 2.1%.

Slower annual growth was seen for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.3% and furnishing, household equipment, and house maintenance at 2.0%.

Growth for the rest of the commodity groups remained the same.

There was slower growth in the country’s food alone index for July at 3.4%, 0.2 points lower than June’s rate.

There were negative annual rates for food groups such as corn, vegetables, and sugar products, and slower ones for meat products.

“The rest of the food groups, however, exhibited higher annual growths with the index for food products not elsewhere classified retaining its previous month’s rate of 0.1 percent,” PSA said.

DBS Group Research commented, “The past few months have made it clear to us that risks on inflation have eased off. Consumer price index inflation is set to average around 3% in 2017 to 2018 barring any significant spike in crude oil prices. This is well within the comfort zone of the central bank, given the medium-term 2-4% inflation target.”