In April, prices of heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 5.9 percent, similar to the previous month's figure. It remained the highest food inflation since October 2014. In addition, cost rose at a faster pace for: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (20 percent from 18.6 percent); clothing and footwear (2.2 percent from 2 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3 percent from 2.9 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (2.8 percent from 2.7 percent); health (2.8 percent from 2.4); transport (4.9 percent from 4.6 percent); recreation and culture (1.5 percent from 1.4 percent); and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (3.4 percent from 3 percent). Meantime, inflation was steady for communication (0.3 percent) and
education (1.8 percent).
On a monthly basis, consumer prices went up by 0.5 percent, the same as a downwardly revised figure in a month earlier. Prices increased for: food (0.4 percent); alcoholic beverages & tobacco (1.3 percent); clothing and footwear (1.8 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.5 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (0.3 percent); health (0.3 percent); transport (0.8 percent); recreation and culture (0.1 percent); and restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services (0.4 percent). Meanwhile, cost was flat for communication and education.
In March 2018, Philippine Statistics Authority decided to rebase CPI series to 2012 from 2006 in order to accommodate the economic changes in the country.
For 2018, the central bank set an inflation target range of between 2 to 4 percent.