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Philippine inflation at record low of 0.6 pct in August

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Philippine inflation rate hit an all-time low of 0.6 percent in August with the decline in the prices of food, energy, and oil rates, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.

The August inflation was lower than the 0.8 percent recorded in July and 4.9 percent in August last year, bringing the year-to- date level to 1.7 percent, below the target range of 2.0-4.0 percent set by the government for this year.

"The current low inflation environment exhibited in the first eight months of 2015 has supported domestic demand, particularly household consumption, and we expect this to persist throughout the rest of the year," said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

By commodity groups, the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index declined by 1.7 percent and transport index declined by 0.6 percent in August.

Slower annual hikes were also observed in all the other commodity groups except in the indices of communication, education, and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services.

The education index increased faster at 3.6 percent while the restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services index retained its last month's rate. The communication index continued to post a zero growth.

However, Balisacan noted that there is still an upside risk to inflation from the expected strengthening of the El Nino in the country in the coming months until early 2016. Endi