Consumer prices rise further in April, breaching full-year target

by Christine Joyce S. Castañeda, BusinessWorld, May 4, 2018

Consumer prices rose to its fastest pace in more than five years in April, the government reported this morning.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said April inflation rose to 4.5% from the 4.3% logged in March and 3.2% in the same period last year. Last month’s print was the fastest in at least five years as computed under the 2012-based consumer price index, according to PSA data.

The preliminary result matches the median forecast in a BusinessWorld poll of 11 economists conducted last week. The April print was also within the 3.9-4.7% forecast range for the month given by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Department of Economic Research.

The April preliminary result brought year-to-date average to 4.1% – overshooting the 2-4% target band set by the BSP for 2018.

The PSA attributed the acceleration to the faster annual gains recorded in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (20%); clothing and footwear (2.2%); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (3%); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (2.8%); health (2.8%); transport (4.9%); recreation and culture (1.5%); and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (3.4%).

Meanwhile, growth in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages remained steady from March albeit elevated at a 5.9% rate. This was, however, still higher than 3.3% in April 2017.

The food alone index, meanwhile, eased to 5.5%, slower than the 5.7% recorded in the previous month, but faster than the 3.6% in April 2017. —