By Arabella Balderama

The Philippines’s inflation rate continued to accelerate in October, reaching 7.7 percent—the highest since the global financial crisis in December 2008, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said on Friday, November 4.

According to the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation increased from 7.4 percent in September to 9.4 percent in October, primarily due to external price pressures, disrupted global supply chains, and the lingering effects of recent natural disasters. 

Annual spikes were also observed for rice, corn, flour, fish, and milk.

“Medyo wide, ‘di lang siya sa vegetables. Mataas din sa meat… fish. May iba pa tayong mga items, sugar, confectionary desserts. You will notice for NCR in particular, double digit na almost all sub-groups. That is our concern,” Mapa added.

The most recent statistic of October’s consumer price index is within the 7.1 to 7.9 percent expectation of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Additionally, it exceeds September’s report of 6.9 percent and is nearly twice the top end of the government’s current target range of two to four percent.

Government estimates showed that inflation would continue to rise and remain higher than their target range for the rest of the year.

Thumbnail from Reuters