MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine annual inflation came in at 3.6% in December, the lowest level since December 2020, due to slower increases in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, the country’s statistics agency said on Wednesday.
The headline figure was near the low end of the central bank’s projected range of 3.5%-4.3% for the month, and below the 3.8% median forecast in a Reuters poll. Full-year inflation averaged 4.5%, outside the 2%-4% target band of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Ed Davies)
