Inflation accelerates to 3.7% in March

The increase in the prices of goods and services in the country accelerated for the second straight month in March on the back of faster upticks in food and transport costs, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.

- LOUELLA DESIDERIO

In a press conference, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the country's headline inflation or the rate of increase in the average prices of consumer goods and services went up to 3.7 percent in March from 3.4 percent in February.

The inflation print last month was within the 3.4 to 4.2 percent forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). However, it was lower than the 7.6 percent in March last year.

Driving the uptrend in overall inflation in March was the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group, which climbed to 5.6 percent in March from 4.6 percent in February.

For food alone, inflation picked up to 5.7 percent in March from 4.8 percent a month earlier.

Mapa said this was the highest food inflation since the 5.8 percent recorded in November last year.

Rice inflation climbed to 24.4 per cent in March from 23.7 percent in February and was the fastest since the 24.6 percent in February 2009.

According to Mapa, the prices of the three classifications of rice such as regular-milled, well-milled and special rice tracked by the PSA registered year-on-year and month-on-month increases in March.

"Our expectation is (rice prices) will actually increase strongly until July because of base effects, unless there is really some intervention that will happen in the market that will lead to a drop in prices. We don't see any for now," he said.

While lower rice prices might start to be seen in August, he said the staple might still have doubledigit inflation based on the PSA's computation.