Philippines' inflation rate decelerates to 4.3% in May

Philippines' inflation rate in May slowed down to 4.3 percent as a result of the lower electricity rates, data released by the country's National Statistics Office ( NSO) on Friday showed.

The May inflation is slower than the 4.4 percent posted in April 2010, but higher than the 3.3 percent reported in the same month last year.

"The decline in electricity rates in Manila primarily pushed down the movement of the overall consumer prices to -0.2 percent in May from 0.5 percent in April. Price decreases in kerosene, gasoline and diesel also contributed to the downtrend," the NSO said.

However, NSO said, the prices of certain commodities did not change in May from the previous month. The food, beverage, and tobacco index, housing and repairs index, and the services index was at 3.1 percent, 1.7 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, or similar to the increases they posted in April.

Excluding selected food and energy items, core inflation decelerated to 3.8 percent in May from 4 percent in April.

Source:Xinhua