Inflation for the first month of the year slowed down to 4.3 percent from the 4.4 percent inflation recorded the previous month and lower than the
7.1 percent inflation a year ago.
“Slower price gains in all major commodity groups except for fuel, light
and water as well as services contributed to the overall deceleration in
inflation,” said acting socioeconomic planning Secretary Augusto B. Santos
in a memorandum to the President.
Core inflation, which excludes some food and energy items to measure
generalized price pressures, also decreased from 3.2 in December 2009 to
3.0 percent in January this year.
Meanwhile, prices of electricity as well as fruits and vegetables drove
down inflation from the previous month.
“Meralco reported that consumers experienced a P0.2854 decline per
kilowatt-hour (kwh) as generation charges dropped to P3.9175/kwh in
January. The decline was due to the full use of banked gas in December 2009
and low demand due to the cold weather,” Santos said.
On the other hand, fruits and vegetables prices fell by P17.24 per kilogram
on average from December 2009 to January 2010.
Additionally, the rise in prices in the National Capital Region (NCR) eased
to 3.6 percent in January 2010 from 4.0 percent the previous month. NCR
inflation was lower than the inflation in areas outside NCR (AONCR) as the
latter increased slightly to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent in December 2009.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee has forecast that the
headline inflation for 2010 would settle at 4.0 percent, lower than the 4.5
+1.0 percent target for the year.
