The Philippines' inflation rate continued its downward trend, easing to 4.7% in July from 5.4% in June 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.
This marks the sixth consecutive month of deceleration in the overall inflation rate and represents the lowest rate since March 2022 when it stood at 4.0%.
The July 2023 record is significantly lower as compared to the 6.4% inflation rate in July 2022.
The average inflation rate for the first seven months of 2023 settled at 6.8%.
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The latest moderation in overall inflation during July 2023 was attributed to several factors.
Notably, the year-on-year increase in the prices of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels slowed down to 4.5% from 5.6% in June 2023.
Additionally, the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages category also contributed to the decline, with an inflation rate of 6.3% in July 2023, down from 6.7% in the previous month.
Furthermore, the transport sector witnessed a faster annual decrease of -4.7% in July as compared to -3.1% in June.
The inflation rates of alcoholic beverages and tobacco also decreased to 10.9% from 11.6%, while clothing and footwear eased to 4.8% from 5.1%.
Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance saw a decrease to 5.8% from 6.0%.
Similarly, the inflation rates for recreation, sport, and culture declined to 4.7% from 4.8%.
Food inflation at the national level continued its downward trajectory for the sixth consecutive month in July 2023, settling at 6.3%.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier predicted that the inflation rate in July will fall within the range of 4.1% to 4.9%.
During his second State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has emphasized that inflation was one of the biggest problem the country had specially during the post-pandemic economic recovery.
With the downtrend in inflation, Marcos highlighted that the Philippines it is moving in the right direction.
