Inflation in the Philippines was flat at 2.9% in January from the previous month
The Philippine National Bureau of Statistics released data on the 5th, showing that the country's overall inflation rate in January 2025 was 2.9%, the same as the previous month.
The data showed that inflation remained flat on a month-on-month basis mainly due to the rise and fall of various commodity price increases.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose 3.8 per cent from a year earlier, faster than the previous month, and accounted for 50.3 per cent of January's headline inflation rate. Food inflation rose to 4.0 per cent from 3.5 per cent in the previous month, up from 3.3 per cent in January 2024. The data showed that this was mainly due to the significant increase in the inflation rate of vegetables, meat, fish and other seafood from the previous month, which offset the decline in the rice price index.
The price of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, while the price of catering and accommodation services rose 3.2 per cent, both slower than the previous month, partly offsetting the impact of food inflation.
Excluding food and energy prices, core inflation in the Philippines was 2.6 per cent in January, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month and down from 3.8 per cent in January 2024.