Philippine inflation in March fell to 1.8 percent, a ''historic low'' since the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, but the government will watch out for ''potential implications'' of US President Donald Trump decision to raise tariffs to 17 percent, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Friday.

It went down from 2.1 percent in February as slower inflation in the food index (2.3 percent from 2.6 percent) and non-food items (1.4 percent from 1.6 percent).

The March reading was lower than the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' estimate of 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent.

“The slow rise in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages had a 50.2 percent share of the downtrend in inflation,” said Philippine Statistics Authority head Claire Dennis Mapa.

Cereals and cereal products, primarily rice, had a -5.2 percent inflation rate in March compared to -3 percent in February, while meat and other parts of slaughtered animals had an 8.2 percent inflation in March compared to previously recorded 8.8 percent in February

The easing of food inflation was due to faster year-on-year decline in rice which went down to minus 7.7 percent in March from minus 4.9 percent in February.

A decrease in transport index and slower inflation for restaurants and accommodation services also led to the slowing of inflation in March. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS