Inflation accelerates to 11-month high in January

The Philippine inflation rate hit an 11-month high in January due mainly to higher prices of housing and utilities, government data released on Thursday showed.

Consumer prices grew by 2.0% in January, accelerating from 1.8% in December 2025, but slower than the 2.9% in January 2025. This is the fastest in 11 months since the 2.1% in February 2025. 

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) attributed the uptrend to the 3.3% increase in prices of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, the highest since August 2024’s 3.8%. This accounted for 45.9% to the uptrend.

According to National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa, housing prices increased by 2.9% in January, faster than the 2.4% in December.

“’Yung reading namin, January kasi nagsisimula ‘yung pag-adjust ng mga yearly rentals, so may adjustment. Nakikita naman na sunod sunod na ito baka ‘yung mga months ng February, March, may pagtaas dito,” he said in a press briefing.

(Our reading is that adjustments to annual rentals start in January, so there are adjustments. We see this continuing, so there could be further hikes in February and March.)

Restaurants and accommodation services also contributed to the faster print as prices grew 4.0% in January versus 2.4% the previous month, with packed food and fast food costing more despite raw materials having lower prices.

"Ang nakikita namin na tumataas ay yung mga items na may pork (What we are seeing increasing are items that have pork)," Mapa said, noting that the faster inflation rate was seen primarily in lunch items.

?Faster annual increases were also seen in clothing and footwear (up 2.3%); furnishings, household equipment, and routine household (up 2.3%); health (up 3.0%); information and communication (up 0.8%); and personal care, and miscellaneous goods (2.6%).

Meanwhile, slower inflation rates were seen in food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.1%); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.1%); education services (2.8%).

The transport index posted a 0.3% annual decline, while the financial services index was unchanged from the previous month.

?Core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, increased to 2.8% from 2.4% in December 2025.

Compared with inflation rates in December, 11 regions recorded an acceleration with Region VII or Central Visayas having the highest rate of 5.6. The National Capital Region (NCR) posted a 1.9% inflation rate. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News