Inflation Eases to 1.4% in April

Inflation continued its downtrend in April, easing to its lowest level since 2019, due to the slower uptick in food prices.

- By Louella Desiderio

In a press conference yesterday, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said that headline inflation — the rate of increase in prices of consumer goods and services — slowed further to 1.4 percent in April from the previous month's 1.8 percent and the 3.8 percent in the same month last year.

"This is the lowest since November 2019 when the inflation was 1.2 percent," Mapa said.

He said the downtrend in inflation was primarily driven by the slower annual increment in food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.9 percent in April from 2.2 percent in March.

Inflation for food alone eased to 0.7 percent from 2.3 percent as rice prices continued to decline due to lower local farmgate prices and reduced landed cost of imported rice.

In particular, rice inflation registered a faster decline of 10.9 percent in April from the 7.7-percent decrease in March.