MANILA, Philippines— The country’s inflation rate dropped to 2.1 percent in February 2025, down from 2.9 percent in January, marking its lowest level since April 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday.

This brings the national average inflation for the first two months of the year to 2.5 percent. 

In comparison, inflation in February 2024 was higher at 3.4 percent.

In a press briefing, national statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said that the decline was primarily driven by slower increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages, which registered a 2.6 percent inflation rate in February from 3.8 percent in January. 

Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels also saw a slower annual increase of 1.6 percent, down from 2.2 percent in the previous month. Additionally, the transport sector recorded a 0.2 percent annual decline, reversing its 1.1 percent increase in January.

Other commodity groups that posted lower annual increments included:

• Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.4 percent from 3.5 percent)
• Clothing and footwear (2.1 percent from 2.3 percent)
• Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (2.3 percent from 2.6 percent)
• Health (2.3 percent from 2.5 percent)
• Restaurants and accommodation services (2.8 percent from 3.2 percent)
• Personal care and miscellaneous goods and services (2.6 percent from 2.8 percent)

Meanwhile, a higher annual increase was observed in information and communication at 0.3 percent in February from 0.2 percent in January. The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s annual rates, the PSA said.

Major contributors to inflation

The statistics bureau likewise noted that the top contributors to the February 2025 inflation rate were food and non-alcoholic beverages (47 percent share or 1 percentage point), housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (16.4 percent share or 0.3 percentage point), and restaurants and accommodation services (12.9 percent share or 0.3 percentage point)

Food inflation slows

Food inflation at the national level eased to 2.6 percentin February from 4 percent in January. This is also lower than the 4.8 percent food inflation recorded in February 2024, Mapa said.

The slower food inflation was primarily due to the decline in vegetable, tuber, plantain, cooking banana, and pulse prices, which registered a 7.1 percent increase in February compared to 21.1 percent in January. 

Rice prices also dropped at a faster annual rate of 4.9 percent, compared to a 2.3 percent decrease in January.

The main drivers of food inflation were:

• Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals (70.2 percent share or 1.8 percentage points)
• Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses (24.7 percent share or 0.6 percentage point)
• Fish and other seafood (20.4 percent share or 0.5 percentage point)