School opening accelerates inflation

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The opening of classes slightly pushed up the rate of increase of prices of goods and services in June to 2.8% from 2.6% in May.

“The opening of classes in June saw a 0.6% growth in the prices of consumer items at the national level from 0.1% in May,” the National Statistics Office said in its data release on Friday, July 5.

The slight pick-up in June inflation was also attributed to “upward price adjustments in the heavily-weighted food items particularly rice, fish and vegetables.”

Other main contributors were:

• Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, up 31.2%
• Health, up 2.8%
• Transport, up 0.7%
• Recreation and culture, up 2.7%
• Education, up 4.5%

This brought the average inflation rate for the first 6 months of 2013 to 2.9%.

This is still within the target range of 2% to 3% for the year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Amado Tetangco Jr said in a statement.

The June inflation rate reflects “manageable inflation and the appropriateness of our current policy stance,” he said.

“The BSP will continue to monitor external developments, particularly any changes in the monetary policies…We will monitor the impact of these factors on global and domestic investor sentiment and growth dynamics to see if there is any need to adjust our own policy settings,” he added. – Rappler.com