Rice inflation drops to 5.7% in September

The inflation rate for the country’s food staple rice, which had been trailing at double-digits since late last year, dropped to a single-digit in September still due to combined base effects and impact of reduced tariff rates for the imported grain, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Friday.

At a press conference, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said rice inflation slowed down to 5.7% last month from 14.7% in August.

This was the lowest inflation print for the grain since July 2023, when it clocked in at 4.2%.

The easing of inflation for rice was consistent with the PSA’s expectation that it will begin easingtowards the second half of 2024 due to base effects, particularly when it began its uptrend in August 2023, as well as the impact of lower rice import tariff which took effect early July. 

“We have been saying before that we will be experiencing slowdown starting August, September (onwards) in the price of rice in particular,” Mapa said.

In a separate statement, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan cited the Executive Order No. 62, issued by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in June 2024, which reduced the tariff rate for imported rice to 15% from 35%.

“While we expect lower tariffs to reduce rice prices, we should continuously support local production through increased agricultural funding to complement this short-term measure,” Balisacan said.

To illustrate the slower rice inflation seen last month, Mapa bared the month-on-month national average prices of regular, well-milled, and special rice varieties during the period.

In particular, the following are the average prices of rice at the national level in September:

• Regular milled - P50.47 per kilo from P50.66 per kilo in August
• Well-milled - P55.51 per kilo from P55.85 per kilo in August
• Special - P64.05 per kilo versus P64.08 month-on-month

“We are seeing a reduction in the average price per kilo,” the PSA chief said.

The overall inflation rate for September slowed down to 1.9% —it’s slowest in over four years or since May 2020 when it clocked in at 1.6%— due to the easing in the rate of growths in the prices of food, transport, and utilities. —AOL, GMA Integrated News