November inflation up 1.3%

The latest inflation figure, which rose for the first time since May 2019, affirmed expectations that it will begin to normalize, as the impact of base effects dissipate.

Quiet times at the Arayat market in Quezon City. Inflation in the National Capital Region for November was pegged at 1.5 percent as compared to the 1.3 percent posted in October. analy labor @tribunephl_ana

The sustained increase in prices of goods and services, also known as inflation, grew at a faster rate for the month of November, according to National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa.

“The year-on-year headline inflation at the national level accelerated to 1.3 percent in November 2019, after it decelerated for five consecutive months since June 2019,” Mapa said.

“This brings the year-to-date inflation for 2019 to 2.5 percent. Inflation in October 2019 was recorded at 0.8 percent and in November 2018, 6 percent,” he added.

Also, the latest inflation figure, which rose for the first time since May 2019, affirmed expectations that it will begin to normalize, as the impact of base effects dissipate.

According to Mapa, the higher annual increases for November could be owed to the observed uptrend in prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (17.6 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.2 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (2.8 percent); health (3.1 percent); and communication (0.3 percent).

In contrast, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) noted on the sustained decrease on other major commodities such as rice, which registered an annual deflation of 8.3 percent in November.

This compares to the registered 9.7 percent in October and translates to seven-month decline for the staple grain.

Inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) accelerated to 1.5 percent in November from the posted 1.3 percent in October. Year-on-year, inflation was significantly lower than the recorded 5.6 percent in November 2018.

Likewise, inflation in areas outside NCR spiked to 1.2 percent from just 0.7 percent in the same comparable period. On an annual basis, such figure proved to be lower than the posted 6.2 percent in November 2018.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expressed its satisfaction with the outturn noting on such level to be within their expectation range.

“The November 2019 inflation of 1.3 percent was within the BSP’s forecast range of 0.9 to 1.7 percent…The latest inflation outturn is consistent with the BSP’s prevailing assessment that inflation has bottomed out in October and is expected to gradually approach the midpoint of the target range in 2020 and 2021,” the BSP said in a statement.