High prices of food, especially pork and vegetables, pushed headline inflation upward to a two-year high of 4.2 percent year-on-year last January. | bendeveraINQ
In a report, the Philippine Statistics Authority said the surge in inflation among the poor was mainly due to faster price hikes in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Economic officials had said the upward price pressures, which started in October 2020, were only “transitory” as a result of tight pork supply, damaged agricultural produce after a string of strong typhoons and lack of mass transportation amid prolonged COVID-19 quarantine. Chua, who heads the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority , last week said GDP would likely post year-on-year growth only by the second quarter of 2021 amid a “slow start” in the current quarter, extending economic contraction since the first quarter of 2020 to five straight quarters.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.’s chief economist Michael Ricafort said headline inflation “could remain at 4-percent levels” during the coming months mainly due to base effects from last year’s rates.