The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has announced a further decline in the inflation rate for the third consecutive month in December. According to the PSA, the inflation rate for December stood at 3.9%, a decrease from November’s 4.1%.
National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa highlighted that this rate is significantly lower than the 8.1% recorded in December 2022, marking it as the lowest inflation rate in 2023 and the lowest since February 2022, which saw a rate of 3%.
Mapa attributed the lower inflation rate in December 2023 primarily to the slower price increases in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels. These categories recorded a 1.5% inflation and contributed 59.6% to the overall reduction in the country’s inflation.
Furthermore, food inflation, which measures price changes in a standard set of food items commonly bought by households, also showed a decrease. It fell to 5.5% from the previous 5.8%, driven by reductions in the prices of vegetables and meat.