2024 inflation settles within target

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto credited effective government interventions, particularly the moderation of rice prices, for easing the country's average inflation rate to 3.2 percent in 2024, well within the target.

"With the President's decisive leadership...we were able to manage the inflation to finally settle within our target after two years," Recto said in a statement. "The sustained moderation in rice prices is particularly a welcome relief especially to our lower-income households."

The 2024 average inflation rate was significantly lower than 6.0 percent in 2023 and 5.8 percent in 2022.

Prices of key items such as food and non-alcoholic beverages rose at a slower pace by 4.4 percent in 2024 from 7.9 percent in 2023. Similarly, the annual average inflation for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels slowed to 1.7 percent in 2024 from 4.9 percent in the previous year.

Rice inflation recorded a significant drop to 0.8 percent in December 2024 from 5.1 percent in November 2024 and 19.6 percent in December 2023. Rice contributed only 0.07 percentage points to the December 2024 inflation, down from 0.45 percentage points in November 2024.

Rice prices have been steadily declining as a result of Executive Order No. 62 in July 2024, which lowered import tariffs on rice. This helped offset the lingering effects of high prices of food commodities due to typhoons in November 2024.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), the average retail price of imported rice for the second half of December 2024 went down by 4.07 pesos per kilogram (kg) from the second half of June 2024, prior to the implementation of the EO.

The continued drop in rice prices has benefitted the bottom 30 percent of households as headline inflation for the said group declined to 2.5 percent in December 2024 from 2.9 percent in the previous month and 5.0 percent in December 2023.