PSA data showed that inflation for most commodity groups slowed down or retained their previous rates during the last month.
However, rice inflation rose to 19.6 percent in December from 15.8 percent in November. It was also the most significant contributor to December's inflation with 1.7 percentage points, followed by food and beverages services and housing rentals with 0.5 percentage point each.
"The downtrend in the overall inflation in December was primarily brought about by the lower year-on-year growth in the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.5 percent in December 2023 from 2.5 percent in the previous month, PSA head Dennis Mapa told a press conference.
The core inflation, excluding selected food and energy items, decreased to 4.4 percent in December from 4.7 percent in November, which brings the average core inflation for 2023 at 6.6 percent.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government will continue closely monitoring the spiking international rice prices and the expected negative impact of the El Nino phenomenon.
NEDA will propose further temporary tariff adjustments if necessary and push for trade facilitation measures to reduce other non-tariff barriers, Balisacan said.
"While our medium-term objective to boost agricultural productivity remains, it is important to augment domestic supply to ease inflationary pressures on consumers, particularly those in low-income households," he added.
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