December inflation up 2.9%, within goal

Inflation last month slightly rose to 2.9 percent from 2.5 percent in November, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Tuesday.

The latest figure settled within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' projection of 2.3 to 3.1 percent for December.

The growth was mainly driven by higher prices of food which rose by 3.4 percent and housing, utilities and fuels with 2.9 percent inflation.

However, rice prices, in particular, continued to decline to 0.8 percent last month from 5.1 percent in November.