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The retail price of the Philippines’ staple food rice is expected to continue to go down, settling at a negative inflation rate for the whole of 2025, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Thursday.

At a press conference in Quezon City on Thursday, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported a sharper year-on-year deflation or “negative inflation” in rice at -12.8% in May 2025 from -10.9% in April 2025.

For the January to May period, rice inflation clocked in at -7.7%, according to the PSA chief.

Last month also marked the 11th consecutive month of decline in rice’s inflation print and the fifth month in a row that the rate of the staple’s cost had been contracting.

The trend of easing inflation for rice seen since August 2024 was consistent with the PSA’s expectation that it will begin easing towards the second half of 2024 due to base effects, particularly when it began its uptrend in August 2023, as well as the impact of lower rice import tariff which took effect early July last year.

“The expectation is that it will continue to go down, definitely there are base effects. It will continue to be negative [inflation] for at least until August… but definitely the average for the whole year would be negative,” Mapa said.

To illustrate the contraction in rice inflation seen last month, Mapa bared the year-on-year national average prices of regular, well-milled, and special rice varieties during the period.

In particular, the following are the average prices of rice at the national level in May 2025:

• Regular milled: P43.19 per kilo from P51.11 per kilo in May 2024
• Well-milled: P49.45 per kilo from P56.06 per kilo
• Special: P59.80 per kilo from P64.41 per kilo year-on-year

The PSA chief also cited the government’s ongoing P20 per kilo rice initiative aimed at easing the inflationary burden of those in the vulnerable sectors such as 4Ps beneficiaries, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and single parents.

“The P20 rice is already coming in various outlets,” Mapa said.

In a separate statement, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is “expanding the reach of the P20 rice program and is studying a reduction in the suggested retail price (SRP) for imported rice—the national staple that dominates Filipino tables, especially among the poor.”

The Department of Agriculture said that rice accounts for P9 of every P100 spent by the average Filipino

Among the bottom 30% of income households, the figure doubles.

With the introduction of the P20 per kilo rice program in Bacolod City, the DA said the total number of outlets offering the subsidized grain grew to 87, exceeding the original target of 55 outlets by end-June. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the DA to sustain the subsidized rice initiative through June 2028, to reach up to 60 million Filipinos. –NB, GMA Integrated News

Source : msn