Continuous lowering of rice prices led a decline in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverage index pulled the headline inflation rate to drop to 1.4 percent in April, the lowest it has been since November 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the 1.4 percent inflation rate is the lowest since November 2019.

“This lower-than-expected inflation rate for the month also provides more room for the BSP to further cut policy interest rates to help us further boost the spending power of Filipinos, drive in more investments, and grow the economy, especially amid rising global uncertainties,” he added.

The drop in prices of rice and vegetables helped offset the rate hikes on electricity, said National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa.

Lower food inflation especially benefited low-income families as the inflation for the bottom 30 percent income households in April slowed to 0.1 percent??the lowest since November 2019.

PSA reported a deceleration in rice index to 10.9 percent from 7.7 percent in March.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) previously set the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for imported rice at P45 per kilo which began on March 31.

The DA's price monitoring listed the weekly average retail price of well-milled imported rice at P43.78 per kilo as of May 3.

Meanwhile, higher inflation rates were observed in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.7 percent from 3.6 percent), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (2.9 percent from 1.7 percent), and health (2.4 percent from 2.2 percent).

Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels remain to be the leading contributor to headline inflation, with a 39.5 percent share. Food and non-alcoholic beverages have a 24.6 percent share in inflation and restaurants and accommodation services have a 15.2 percent share.Yzabela Velez-White/DMS