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Philippines' inflation rate fastest over two years

Xinhua, April 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

Philippines' inflation rate rose to 3.4 percent in March from 3.3 percent in February due to higher prices of electricity and gas and other fuels, the government said Wednesday.

"The first three months of 2017 saw the inflation rate trending upward, partly due to recent hikes in food and oil prices and also because of a generally low base in 2016," the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in a statement.

The PSA said inflation in March was the fastest since November 2014 but it was still within government target for the year.

"Upward risks to inflation remain, but the overall outlook continues to be within government's 2.0-4.0 percent target range for this year and next," said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia in another statement.

Inflation in the food group decelerated to 4.2 percent in March from 4.3 percent in the previous month due to slower price adjustments in fish, fruits, vegetables, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionary, and other food products, the PSA said.

Inflation in the non-food group accelerated to 2.8 percent from 2.5 percent in February and from 0.4 percent in March 2016, it said.

"This was mainly due to the faster year-on-year price adjustments of electricity, gas, and other fuels, which hiked to 9.3 percent," the PSA said.

Pernia said that "higher electricity rates are expected to persist in the next two months as the Energy Regulation Commission will spread the additional cost from the use of liquid fuel, which is more expensive than natural gas, until May 2017." Endit