The Philippine inflation rate sped up for the third month in a row in April on the back of faster price increases for food and transportation, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Tuesday.

Latest data from the statistics agency showed that headline inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services, rose at 3.8 percent on-year last month from 3.7 percent recorded last March.

However, the latest print is slower than the 6.6 percent that the PSA recorded in March and the median 4.1 percent growth estimated by economists in a DAILY TRIBUNE poll last week.

Core inflation, stripping out food and fuel items, slowed to 3.2 percent in April, from 3.4 percent in March and 7.9 percent in April 2023.

The average inflation year-to-date stands at 3.4 percent, still within the government's target band of 2 to 4 percent.

In a press briefing, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa attributed the slight increase in inflation to a faster growth in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which added 2.2 percent to the overall inflation rate last April.

The food and non-alcoholic drinks climbed to 6.3 percent last April from 5.6 percent in March as the prices of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses increased.

The prices of ready-made foods and other food items went up by 4.8 percent, and the prices of fish and other seafood went up by 0.4 percent.

Higher transportation costs also partly caused the inflation rate to increase from 2.1 percent in March to 2.6 percent in April due to faster inflation for diesel and gasoline prices.

Rice inflation slightly eased

While food inflation generally surged in April, Mapa said the statistics bureau recorded a slower increase in the prices of rice.

PSA said the rice inflation came in at 23.9 percent in April, slower than the March rate of 24.4 percent.

"What we observed is that the world price of rice decreased slightly. It peaked in January 2024, and then there was a slight decrease in February and March," Mapa said.

"But the trajectory is that it's been two months of declining world prices, so this might have an impact on the slight decrease in rice prices," Mapa added.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, for his part, said the latest inflation data "underscores the need for vigilance."

“We are taking comprehensive measures to ensure food security amid geopolitical concerns and weather patterns worsened by climate change. The government’s major strategies aim to increase productivity, build the resilience of the agriculture sector, and improve the efficiency of food systems,” Balisacan said.

"We must augment local production during shortages to ensure an adequate food supply at affordable prices for all Filipinos. Food insecurity extends beyond economic strain—it directly impacts the well-being of all Filipinos. Failing to augment local production during shortages perpetuates poverty and exacerbates vulnerability,” Balisacan added.