The Philippines’ headline or overall inflation climbed to 7.2 percent in April this year from 4.1 percent only in March, making it the highest in three years, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.
The April 2026 inflation brought the average inflation rate from January to April 2026 to 3.9 percent, driven by high prices of food and transport.
In April 2025, the inflation rate was observed at 1.4 percent.
PSA attributed the uptrend in the overall inflation rate in April 2026 was primarily influenced by the faster annual increment in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 6.0 percent during the month from 2.9 percent in March 2026. A
The uptrend of the overall inflation were the faster annual increases observed in transport index at 21.4 percent in April 2026 from 9.9 percent in the previous month, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 8.2 percent during the month from 4.7 percent in the previous month.
The top three commodity groups contributing to the April 2026 overall inflation rate were the following:
a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 31.9 percent share or 2.3 percentage points;
b. Transport with 27.0 percent share or 1.9 percentage points; and
c. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 23.2 percent share or 1.7 percentage points.
Food inflation at the national level recorded a faster annual increase of 6.1 percent in April 2026 from 2.7 percent in the previous month. In April 2025, food inflation was lower at 0.7 percent.
