Philippine inflation surges to four per cent in March

Passengers wearing masks for protection against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) queue to ride a train while others exit at a station in Manila, Philippines, April 4, 2022. Year-on-year headline inflation in the Philippines accelerated to 4 per cent in March from 3 per cent in February, 2022 - Reuters

MANILA, April 5 (Xinhua): Year-on-year headline inflation in the Philippines accelerated to 4 per cent in March from 3 per cent in February, mainly due to higher inflation rates for food, utilities, and transport, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

At an online briefing, PSA head Dennis Mapa said the increase in fuel prices in the international market affected the three sectors, causing the March inflation to rise.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said higher inflation rates for food and non-food commodity groups resulted in faster inflation for March, adding food inflation increased to 2.8 percent, up from 1.1 percent in February.

Meanwhile, non-food inflation increased to 5.0 percent in March from 4.1 percent in February, primarily due to elevated oil prices. Transport inflation also increased to 10.3 percent from 8.8 percent.

Covid-19 cases in the country, however, has dipped in a big way and daily cases are well below 400 since last two weeks. - Xinhua