Philippine inflation fell to a five-month low of 2.1 percent in February 2025 from 2.9 percent in January, on slower increases in food prices, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.
“This brings the national average inflation from January to February 2025 to 2.5 percent. In February 2024, the inflation rate was higher at 3.4 percent,” the PSA said.
The government vowed to continue its proactive efforts to ensure adequate food supplies in the short term while steadily raising agricultural productivity, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
Rice prices registered a sharper deflation (-4.9 percent from -2.3 percent), with cost decreasing since July 2024 on a month-on-month basis amid easing international prices and reduced tariffs.
Vegetable inflation also eased to 7.1 percent from 21.1 percent in the previous month. These offset the faster inflation in meat (8.8 percent from 6.4 percent).
Inflation for the bottom 30 percent also fell to 1.5 percent in February 2025, lower than the headline inflation rate and down from 2.4 percent in January this year.
“The government will sustain its efforts to keep inflation low and manageable to protect the purchasing power of Filipinos. As we expect six to 13 typhoons to develop from March to August 2025, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will implement the La Niña action plan to restore agricultural productive capacity in areas likely to be affected by continuous rainfall, flooding, and landslides,” NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.
“The action plan includes water management, financial assistance and credit support, and a massive information campaign on La Niña,” he said.
To mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices on farmers, the DA implemented the Fuel Assistance to Farmers Project. As of Jan. 28, 2025, 74.3 percent of the targeted beneficiaries for 2023 received fuel assistance cards. For 2024, 54.1 percent of the targeted beneficiaries were processed for funding.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order (EO) No. 83 on Feb. 13, 2025, granting real property tax relief to independent power producers operating under Build-Operate-Transfer contracts with government-owned or -controlled corporations.
The EO eased the financial burden on IPPs, and helped ensure a stable electricity supply.
In the livestock industry, measures to address the ASF are being accelerated. The Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook and the Economic Development Group advised the DA-Bureau of Animal Industry to speed up the collection of post-vaccination results from 28 hog farms and quickly submit the analysis to the Food and Drug Administration.
This will help accelerate product registration for the commercial use of the African Swine Fever vaccine.
For the medium term, the Department of Science and Technology has funded the Brisk Response through In-location Diagnostics and Genomic Sequencing System for Animal Disease Testing and Vaccine Research Project, which is expected to be completed in August 2026.
“The downward trend in headline inflation indicates that our efforts to combat inflationary pressures are working. However, we will not be complacent in addressing causes of commodity price increases, particularly for food, to help uplift the lives of poor and vulnerable Filipino families,” said Balisacan.