News Desk
MANILLA: Inflation in the Philippines surged to 8.7 percent in January, the highest since 9.1 percent in November 2008, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.
The main driver behind the rise of inflation from 8.1 percent in December 2022 was owing to the higher year-on-year increase of the index of housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels at 8.5 percent, the statistics body’s head Dennis Mapa told a news conference.
Whooping annual rise in food inflation
The 11.2 percent annual surge in food inflation, the fastest since 2009 and compared to the previous month’s 10.6 percent, was also a key factor behind January’s red-hot inflation.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is also the country’s agriculture secretary, said it was “unfortunate” that inflation continued to rise, but the increase in prices should calm down with a drop in the cost of fuel and imported agricultural goods.
The country’s central bank, which had forecasted January CPI to be around 7.5%-8.3%, said on Saturday that it would focus on inflation rather than the Federal Reserve’s most recent 25-basis point hike as it meets on February 16 to review interest rates.
