Inflation in the Philippines dropped to 1.8% in March 2025, down from 2.1% in February, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday, April 4.
From January to March this year, the average inflation was 2.2%. However, this is still lower than March 2024’s inflation of 3.7%.
What caused the slowdown?
PSA said the lower inflation was mainly due to:
- Slower price increase in food and non-alcoholic drinks (2.2% in March vs. 2.6% in February)
- Bigger drop in transport costs (1.1% drop in March vs. 0.2% in February)
- Lower inflation in restaurants and accommodation services (2.3% in March vs. 2.8% in February)
Top contributors to March 2025 inflation:
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages – 47.4% share (0.9 percentage point)
- Housing, water, electricity, gas, and fuels – 18.5% share (0.3 percentage point)
- Restaurants and accommodation services – 12.1% share (0.2 percentage point)
Food Inflation
Food inflation contributed 0.8 percentage point or 43.1% to the overall March inflation. Top food contributors are meat and related products, fish and seafood, and vegetables and related items.
Food prices rose by 2.3% in March 2025, down from 2.6% in February and much lower than 5.7% in March 2024.
PSA noted that the decrease was mainly due to rice prices, slower price increases in meat, vegetables and similar products, corn, flour, bread, pasta, and cereals, and fruits and nuts.
But some food items saw higher price increases, such as fish and seafood, milk, dairy, and eggs, oils and fats, ready-to-eat food and other items, sugar and desserts dropped at a slower rate.
Core Inflation
Core inflation — which excludes certain food and energy items — went down to 2.2% in March 2025 from 2.4% in February. It was 3.4% in March 2024.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier projected inflation to be between 1.7% to 2.5%, citing rising power rates and the cost of fish and meat.
