PH inflation rate accelerates to 7.7% in October

This is the increase we would not wish to have as the Philippine inflation rate breached to 7.7 percent in October 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report on Friday.

The 7.7 percent consumer price index is higher than the 6.9 percent recorded in September 2022, and it is the highest rate posted in December 2008.

With that, from this year’s January up to date, the country has an average of 5.4 percent inflation rate.

The PSA also reported that this upward trend was primarily due to the 9.4 percent annual growth rate index of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The following commodity groups also contributed to the uptrend of the overall inflation in October 2022:

          a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 10.4 percent;

          b. Clothing and footwear, 3.1 percent;

          c. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 7.4 percent;

          d. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 3.8 percent;

          e. Health, 2.6 percent;

          f.  Recreation, sport and culture, 3.0 percent;

          g. Restaurants and accommodation services, 5.7 percent; and

          h. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 3.7 percent.

Slower annual increases were observed in the indices of transportation (12.5 percent) and education services (3.4 percent).

Furthermore, inflation rates in information and communication and financial services remained unchanged from the previous month.

Meanwhile, the statistics agency revealed that this record may not be the peak and could increase further next month, considering the country’s condition due to recent weather disturbances.