Philippines inflation rate rose to 4% in January

No thanks to the new TRAIN law.

The Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country’s inflation rate increased by 4% in January, from 3.3% in December.

The inflation rate increase was highly due to higher prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which rose from 6.4% in December to 12.3% in January. Prices of heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages also went up by 4.5%.

Further, restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services rose to 3.7%, whilst transport, health, and furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house also increased to 3.2%, 2.6% and 2%, respectively.

According to the PSA, the implementation of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law in January caused the price surges.