Manila, May 6 -- Headline inflation fell to its lowest level in over five years at 1.4 percent in April this year, the lowest recorded since the 1.2 percent in November 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.

In a briefing, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said this brought the year-to-date average inflation rate to 2 percent.

This is at the lower end of the government's 2 to 4 percent target range.

Mapa said the downtrend in the overall inflation in April was due to the slower increase in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.9 percent from 2.2 percent in the previous month.

Food inflation in particular, further eased to 0.7 percent from 2.3 percent in March this year.

In April last year, food in...