Inflation for poorest households continue to ease in September

MANILA, Philippines — The rise in consumer prices for the country’s poorest households continued to ease in September primarily due to lower cost of utilities, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday. 

Inflation for the bottom 30 percent income households at the national level further slowed down to 0.9 percent in September from 2.3 percent in August. 

The downtrend was primarily attributed to the 0.4 percent annual decline in the fuel, light and water (FLW) index.

Contributing to the downtrend were the slower annual increases seen in the indices of food, beverages and tobacco (FBT), housing and repairs (H&R) and services. 

Deflation was in fact, registered in the National Capital Region (NCR) in September as seen in the 0.6 percent contraction in the consumer price index (CPI) for this income group, from negative 0.1 percent in August. 

Declines were seen in the indices of FBT, FLW and miscellaneous goods. 

Inflation for the poorest households in areas outside NCR decelerated to 0.9 percent from 2.4 percent in August. 

Except for Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), which registered a higher annual rate of 0.7 percent, all other regions posted either slower annual rates or had zero annual growth during the month. 

The lowest inflation among the regions was seen in Region 1 (Ilocos) at -1.2 percent, while the highest was noted in Region 6 (Western Visayas) at 3.9 percent.