The Philippines’ inflation rate eased to 3.9 percent in December 2023, marking its lowest level in 22 months, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.
It decelerated from 4.1 percent in November and 8.1 percent in December in 2022. It was also the lowest since it settled at 3.0 percent in February 2022.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier predicted that December inflation would fall within a range of 3.6 percent to 4.4 percent.
Inflation averaged 6 percent in 2023, faster than 5.8 percent in 2022. It was also higher than the target range of 2 percent and 4 percent for the year, but within the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) assumption of 5 to 6 percent.
“The downtrend in the overall inflation in December 2023 was primarily brought about by the lower year-on-year growth in the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.5 percent in December 2023 from 2.5 percent in the previous month,” the PSA said.
“This was followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages with 5.4 percent inflation during the month from 5.7 percent in November 2023,” it said.
The transport index posted an annual increase of 0.4 percent in December, higher than the annual decrease of 0.8 percent in November 2023.
