Telecom producer price decline in Q1 2025

Producer prices in the country’s telecommunications sector slipped in the opening quarter of 2025, reflecting softer rates, particularly in wired services, according to newly released data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its report on the Producer Price Index (PPI) for services covering telecommunications, the PSA said the industry posted a 1.9 percent decline year on year in the first quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, prices also contracted by 1.9 percent.

The PPI tracks the average change over time in the prices received by domestic service providers for services rendered to local clients, with 2024 serving as the base year.

Wired services pull down the overall index

The overall downturn was largely traced to lower prices in wired telecommunications activities. The PSA noted that wired services registered a 5.4 percent annual decrease in the first quarter. The same sub-sector also posted a 5.4 percent drop compared with the previous quarter.

Wireless telecommunications activities, in contrast, showed no movement in prices. The index for wireless services recorded zero growth both year on year and quarter on quarter during the period.

As a result, the telecommunications PPI stood at 98.1 in the first quarter of 2025, down from the base index level of 100 in 2024.

First release for services PPI

The report marks the PSA’s initial publication of the PPI for Services, which initially covers telecommunications and air transport. For telecommunications alone, the index data series begins in 2024, which means there are no comparable annual growth rates for 2024 itself.

The agency said the PPI for services is designed to provide a measure of price trends from the perspective of service producers, offering an additional gauge of sectoral performance and cost pressures in the domestic market.

The first quarter figures suggest easing producer prices in the telecommunications industry at the start of the year, driven mainly by adjustments in wired services while wireless rates held steady.