The Philippines' producer price inflation eased at the start of the year to the lowest in one year, primarily driven by the price developments in the manufacture of transport equipment industry division, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed on Thursday.
The producer price index climbed 4.2 percent year-on-year in January, slower than the 5.1 percent growth in December.
Further, this was the lowest rate since January last year, when it was 4.0 percent.
The easing trend in January was mainly due to the decline in the index of the transport equipment industry division, which fell 0.8 percent annually compared with a 4.2 percent increase in December.
Other primary contributors to the slower annual growth of PPI were the manufacture of food products, with a 6.5 percent annual growth rate during the period from 7.7 percent in the previous month.
The yearly price growth rate for the manufacture of chemical and chemical products eased considerably from 6.9 percent to 2.6 percent.
Monthly producer prices rebounded 0.3 percent in January, after a 0.9 percent decrease in the preceding month.
