?A vendor sells goods inside a market in Quezon City, the Philippines, July 5, 2018. Headline inflation in the Philippines hit 5.2 percent in June, the fastest in at least five years, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)
MANILA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Headline inflation in the Philippines hit 5.2 percent in June, the fastest in at least five years, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
The PSA said the June inflation is 0.6 percent percentage point higher than in May, which was at 4.6 percent. The inflation in the Philippines has continued to accelerate for the sixth month.
"(The faster inflation in June) was primarily brought about by higher annual rate posted in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 6.1 percent," the PSA said in a statement.
The PSA data showed that prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco climbed 20.8 percent in June while housing, water, gas and other fuels went up 4.6 percent. Furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house also went up 3 percent, transport increased 7.1 percent, communication went up 0.4 percent, and education also went up 4 percent, the PSA data showed.
The PSA said the food index also rose 5.8 in June due to the increase in the prices of rice, corn, cereals, flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta, meat, vegetables, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionary and other food products.
The PSA said headline inflation in the National Capital Region jumped by a faster 5.8 percent from 4.9 percent in May, while the rate outside Metro Manila climbed to 5.1 percent from 4.6 percent in the previous month.
Economic managers predicted on Monday that inflation would likely breach the target for 2018 as they adopted the forecast of 4 to 4.5 percent for the entire year by the central bank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
