Philippine inflation slows down to 2.6pc in February

The Philippines' headline inflation slowed down to 2.6 per cent in February, compared to 2.9 per cent in January and 3.8 per cent in February 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Thursday.

"The downtrend in the inflation was mainly brought about by the slower annual increase in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 2.1 per cent during the month," PSA head Claire Dennis Mapa said in a report.

Mapa added that annual increments decelerated in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 18.2 per cent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 1.7 per cent; and transport, 1.8 per cent.

On the other hand, he said a higher annual mark-up of 3.5 per cent was noted in the index of furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, reports Xinhua.

The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month's annual growth rates, Mapa added.

In a statement issued on Feb. 28, the Philippine central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, projected February 2020 inflation to settle within the 2.4-3.2 per cent range.