The 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 (PSA) said on Tuesday.

The latest PSA data showed that headline inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services, rose to 3.8 percent year-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.

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.

Transport, too

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.

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

The PSA said 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,” he added.

Need for vigilance

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 said.

Rice at double digits

Economist-lawmaker Joey Salceda explained that rice remains the primary driver for the soaring prices of goods and services, notwithstanding a slight drop in its cost in April to 23.9 percent. The price of rice decelerated to 23.9 percent from the 24.4 percent rate in March.

However, Salceda, chairperson of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said: “The inflation rates of all major commodities are in the single digits, except rice and rice alone.”

While the prices of goods and services jumped to 3.8 percent in April from 3.7 percent in March, the figure, however, remained within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ target range of 2 to 4 percent.

Salceda noted that this failed to address the underlying causes of the rice crisis as well as the poor’s access to affordable rice.

“The management of this rate — within our inflation targets, but still painful for the poorest households — must be centered primarily on rice,” he said.

Salceda has been calling on the economic managers to laser-focus their game plan on the staple grain to combat inflation. Failure to do so, he said, will still make rice a major factor influencing the overall inflation in the coming months.

“While corn prices are decelerating year on year, I have observed an acceleration of poultry prices which will likely reflect on May figures when they come. Corn inflation will likely be positive next month. This is something to watch out for,” Salceda said.

The amendments to Republic Act 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law, which hurdled a House panel on Tuesday in compliance with President Marcos’ request to pass it as urgent, will improve the way the country manages the massive P29-billion tariff revenues from rice imports to help local farmers and consumers, according to Salceda.

The modifications to the five-year-old RTL, including allowing the National Food Authority to sell rice again in the market, are seen as the long-awaited solution to curb the skyrocketing rice prices, currently pegged at P55.12 and P49.44 for local premium and well-milled, respectively.