Philippine inflation further slowed down to 0.4 percent in September from 4.4 percent during the same month a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.
The downtrend was primarily due to the annual declines in the indices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and transport, the agency said. Indices of all other commodity groups except the indices of communication, recreation and culture, education and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services also slowed down.
Year-to-date, inflation rate averaged at 1.6 percent. Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government expects low inflation to continue in the remaining months of the year.
"We expect the current low inflation environment exhibited in the first nine months of 2015 to persist throughout the rest of the year, more so, as international oil prices continue to remain low and are not expected to increase significantly in the near term," he said.
While low oil prices are likely to provide a cushion to upside inflationary pressures, Balisacan said the government should remain wary of the upside risks to inflation such as the current El Nino episode in the country.
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