The Department of Finance said Friday the inflation rate in July likely rose slightly to 5.3 percent from 5.2 percent a month ago, driven by faster increases in tobacco, utilities and fuel prices.
In an economic bulletin for the month of July, however, the DoF said month-on-month inflation decreased from 0.6 percent in June to 0.17 percent in the month of July.
“By commodity group, month-on-month inflation for both food and non-food items declined with food declining to 0.04 percent from 0.74 percent and non-food declining to 0.22 percent from 0.45 percent,” it said.
The DoF said the only items which deviated from the trend were tobacco which increased to 1.23 percent, housing, utilities and fuels which rose 0.43 percent on account of the lagged impact of petroleum products on electricity prices, health which rose by 0.26 percent, and two other items which climbed slightly.