British bank Standard Chartered lowered its inflation forecast for the Philippines this year to 2.7 percent from 3.5 percent, taking into account the slowdown in the increase of consumer prices in the past four months.
“We revise our inflation forecasts lower to reflect recent softer data. We now expect CPI inflation to average 2.7 percent in 2019, down from our previous forecast of 3.5 percent,” the bank’s economist for Asia, Chidu Narayanan, said in a report titled “On the Ground” released over the weekend.
But Narayanan warned that upside risks to its forecast could arise from higher crude oil prices and potential weather disruptions in the third quarter, usually the season for strong typhoons in the Philippines.
The inflation in February further eased to a one-year low of 3.8 percent from 4.4 percent a month ago, pulled down mainly by slower increases in the prices of key commodities, especially food and beverages.