September 2022 inflation climbs to 6.9 percent

Headline inflation for September 2022 climbed to 6.9 percent from 6.3 percent last month, driven by persistent high food and fuel prices and transportation costs. Meanwhile, the year-to-date inflation stood at 5.1 percent.

Electricity, gas, and other fuels had the highest contribution to inflation at 1.1 percentage point (ppt). Main contributors to the higher food inflation are meat (0.6 ppt), fish (0.5 ppt), and sugar (0.3 ppt). Operation of personal transport equipment and passenger transport services contributed 0.9 ppt and 0.4 ppt, respectively.

Inflation is expected to remain elevated for the last quarter of 2022 with the recent fare hike and the impact of typhoon Karding on food supply. However, inflation is still seen to fall within the 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent assumption of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for 2022.

Inflation in all regions in the country went above target in September 2022. Davao (Region 11) and Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), CARAGA (Region 13) and Central Visayas (Region 7) posted the highest inflation rates among the regions.

To manage inflation, the continued timely implementation of government measures is crucial in mitigating the impact of persistent supply-side pressures on food and other commodity prices.

The government intensifies its measures to help increase the domestic supply by ramping up local production, ensuring timely importation of goods, fertilizers, and raw materials, and improving distribution efficiency.

The country needs to produce and import the needed commodities. Given regional production and price disparities, it is equally important that these goods are efficiently distributed. The government is already looking at regions where inflation is high and which goods are driving inflation to address any bottlenecks.