DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 05 September) – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao paced all areas in Mindanao in terms of inflation rate last month at 8.1%, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.
Region 9 followed at 6.4%, Region 10 at 6.1%, Region 11 at 7.1%, Region 12 at 7.9% and Region 13 at 4.8%.
Nationwide, the inflation rate last month soared to 6.4% from the 5.7% recorded in July, the PSA said.
It said the inflation was driven by the price increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages, 8.5%; alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 21.6%; furnishing and household equipment, 3.5%; health and restaurant, 4.0%; and recreation and culture, 2.4%.
The agency said the annual rate for food alone further climbed to 8.2% in August from 6.8% in July.
“All the food groups registered higher annual increments in August 2018 compared with their previous month’s annual rates, except for the corn index in which annual gain slowed down to 12.6 percent during the month,” it added.
Inflation in National Capital Region (NCR) increased to 7% last month from 6.5% in July while it grew to to 6.2% from 5.5% in other areas due to higher prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, household equipment, transport, recreation and culture, health, restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services.
Inflation was highest in Bicol Region at 9% while it was lowest in Central Luzon at 3.5%.
An economic bulletin on the August 2018 inflation outlook of the Department of Finance released on September 3 said the “the driver of inflation is largely supply-side challenges which need to be addressed by improving productivity.”
Immediate to medium-term horizon will require the country to enhance food security by taking advantage of international trade, it added. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
