THE BUYING power of the Philippine peso has declined in the past eight years due to rising inflation, which quickened to its fastest in 20 months in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday, April 7.
At a press briefing, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa said the value of P1 during the base year 2018 is now equivalent to only 75 centavos as of March 2026.
This means the worth of P1,000 eight years ago has gone down to P750.
“The purchasing power of the Philippine peso is inversely related to inflation rate,” Mapa said. “When inflation increase, the purchasing power of the peso decreases.”
The purchasing power of the Philippine peso is computed as 1 divided by the consumer price index, multiplied by 100.
The decline of the peso’s buying power came after inflation — the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services — accelerated to 4.1% in March driven by the series of mega pump price hikes resulting from the ongoing war in the Middle East.
This was the quickest inflation rate since the 4.4% in July 2024.
Year-to-date inflation rate stood at 2.8%, still within the government’s 2% to 4% ceiling.
Mapa said the main culprit from the higher inflation print was Transport index which saw an inflation rate of 9.9%, a reversal from 0.3% decline month-on-month, and a 54.8% share to the overall uptrend.
In particular, inflation for gasoline soared to 27.3% last month from -5.7% in February while diesel’s inflation rose to 59.5% from -1.3% a month prior.
Also contributing to inflation acceleration in March was the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index which climbed to 3% from 1.8% in February with an overall share of 26.9% to the uptrend, driven by cereals (such as rice) growing 3.7% from -1.3% in the prior month.
The inflation for Housing, Water, Gas and Other Fuels index likewise increased to 4.5% from 3.5% month-on-month with a share of 12.7% on the back of increments across electricity (9.2% from 6.7%), LPG (2.2% from -2.2%), and rentals (3.2% from 3%).
Also, inflation felt by the bottom 30% income households clocked in at 4.2% from 2.5% in February, bringing its first quarter average to 2.8%.
The inflation for the bottom 30% income class was brought about by the 3.9% growth in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages as well as Transport which posted a 7.2% from a contraction of 0.6% in the previous month. (GMA News)
