July inflation drops to 0.9%

Rice prices fall at steepest pace since 1995

- By DERCO ROSAL

Rice prices, partly supported by the current administration's P20-per-kilo rice program, dropped at their fastest pace since 1995, bringing consumer price increases to 0.9 percent in July.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Undersecretary and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said during a press briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 5, that the government's P20-per-kilo rice program helped lower prices of the food staple during the month, a trend that Filipinos began seeing since June.

Mapa reported that July inflation across all income households dropped to its lowest since October 2019's 0.6 percent, and from 1.4 percent in June.

This was substantially lower than last year's 4.4-percent inflation rate. July inflation also fell within the downscaled forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), at 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent.

In June, a substantial 14.4-percent drop in rice prices, the fastest yearon-year decline since 1995, helped offset the overall inflation uptick. In July, this decline was even steeper at 15.9 percent-reflecting the spread of the recently launched cheaper rice program.

Apart from rice deflation, the overall food deflation in July was driven by deeper price drops in vegetables (-4.7 percent from -2.8 percent), along with slower price increases in key items like meat (8.8 percent from 9.1 percent).

While vegetable inflation stayed low in July, Mapa expects it to pick up in August, with the impact of recent typhoons already becoming noticeable, particularly in Metro Manila.