Inflation slows further to 4.7% Now at 16-month low, but Statistics Authority wary of rising rice prices

By Julito G. Rada, Charles

Dantes and Maricel V. Cruz

INFLATION in July 2023 eased further to a 16-month low of 4.7 percent from 5.4 percent a month ago, pulled down by slower year-on-year increases in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.

“This is the sixth consecutive month of deceleration in headline inflation and the lowest since March 2022 with an inflation of 4 percent,” National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa said in an online briefing. But Mapa said the agency would take a closer look at the trajectory of