Inflation eases to 4.1% in November

Transcript

00:00 Thank goodness for a drag in the rise in the cost of food and sweetened drinks

00:04 that helped cut a hefty 1.7 percent from last month's overall inflation

00:08 that dropped eight-tenths of a percentage point to 4.1 percent.

00:13 The dip of over four and a half percent inflation since February augurs well for the nation's

00:18 economic recovery as it finishes off this year in a flourish.

00:22 Araya Lasigas narrates the details in this report.

00:27 With the right interventions in place, including the proper and timely deployment of trade policy,

00:32 the National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA is confident that they can effectively

00:37 manage inflation and prevent unnecessary upticks in prices of goods and commodities to safeguard

00:42 the purchasing power of Filipino families. NEDA released the statement following the slowdown

00:47 of the country's inflation rate. The PSA has recorded a 4.1 percent inflation in November

00:53 2023. This is way lower than the 4.9 percent headline inflation rate for the month of October.

00:59 The PSA said the lower increase in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages contributes

01:04 to the further deceleration of inflation. The PSA said the year-on-year growth rate of heavily

01:09 weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages slowed down to 5.7 percent in November 2023

01:16 from 7.0 percent in October 2023, the primary driver of lower inflation rate.

01:21 The agency also noted annual decreases in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco,

01:26 clothing and footwear, housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels.

01:31 Well, we can see in our time series, we don't have a pattern that is really seasonal. Of course,

01:40 one of the things that can influence would be one, our external shock like price of oil.

01:48 If you remember, the contribution of transport is big because in the month of November,

01:55 the price of gasoline and diesel decreased almost every week.

01:59 It is also far lower than the 8 percent inflation rate during the same month last year.

02:04 Some residents hope the inflation continues to slow down in the coming months.

02:08 Praying for that.

02:10 (Foreign language)

02:32 (Foreign language)

02:41 The November 2023 inflation is now the lowest monthly inflation since January,

02:46 the lowest recorded in the past 20 months since March 2022,

02:51 followed by the 4.7 percent in July and 4.9 percent in October.

02:56 Ryan Lizigas for the nation.