Electricity, household fuel, cigarettes and tobacco were some of the commodities that logged an increase in their price due to inflation in the country, according to an online shopping aggregator.
iPrice Group on Monday reported that based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the following categories had the highest increase in prices:
- Operation of personal transport equipment at 34.7%
- Electricity and household fuel at 15.7%
- Cigarettes and tobacco at 10.9%
Data on the percentage change was obtained by the online shopping aggregator which compared the value of the CPI for each category in August 2021 with the August 2022 data from the PSA’s website.
iPrice said that the highest increase in the CPI occurred on January 2022 at 1.09%.
It added that sectors indirectly connected to fuel would “inevitably” experience an increase due to the rise of fuel prices.
“In addition to the cost of passenger transportation services which include lubricants, spare parts, and other automotive parts, and maintenance and repair, vehicles are still in high gear in sales,” the aggregator said.
Meanwhile, it attributed the increase of CPI in tobacco due to the “sin” taxes “that pushed the prices higher to discourage smoking and drinking.”
iPrice said that global inflationary pressures are increasing due to the economic conditions that have not fully recovered two years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also factored in the ongoing geopolitical conflicts happening on the global stage, such as the Russian and Ukraine conflict.
Last Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr allayed concerns about soaring inflation rates.
According to him, the overall inflation forecast for the Philippines is still better than other countries.
READ: Marcos ready to defend peso, fight inflation
The Asian Development Bank expects inflation in the country at 5.3% in 2022 and 4.3% in 2023.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the country’s Asian neighbors “are not spared” from the “persistently high” inflation.
“Major economies in the ASEAN, such as Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, have seen their inflation rates accelerate in the past year,” he said.
Balisacan also cited the World Bank‘s October forecast for 2022 and 2023, which expects the country to grow by 6.5% in 2022, second to Vietnam among major ASEAN economies.
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