Inflation steady in July - NSO

Philippine consumer prices marginally eased in July owing to the slower price growth in food and non-alcoholic beverages, among others, the National Statistics Office said on Friday. In a report, the NSO said inflation rate was 5.1 percent in July, lower than 5.2 percent in June. The latest figure cited the rebased inflation using 2006 prices. "[The lower annual headline inflation] was primarily due to the slower annual increase in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index. Deceleration in the annual growths in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, health; transport; and restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services indices also contributed to the downtrend," the NSO said. The 2006 data will soon become the basis for inflation reports. Meanwhile, using the 2000 prices, inflation remained steady at 4.6 percent, the same growth that it had in June. The BSP earlier said that it expected inflation in July within 4.3 percent to five percent. -- CMA/OMG, GMA News