Manila, Jan. 6 -- The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday said inflation outlook remains benign and expectations remain well anchored even with the uptick in the December 2025 inflation rate.

Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during the day showed that the rate of price increases accelerated to 1.8 percent in December 2025 from month-ago's 1.5 percent due to a faster uptick of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages and the clothing and footwear indices.

The average rate for the year stood at 1.7 percent, below the BSP's 2 percent to 4 percent target band for 2025.

BSP earlier projected the December 2025 inflation rate to range between 1.2 percent to 2 percent.

BSP Governor Eli Remolona,...