Manila, Feb. 5 -- Headline inflation settled at 2.9 percent in January, unchanged from December 2024 as lower rice prices helped offset the increase in other food items.

In a briefing Wednesday, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said faster annual increases were seen in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.8 percent from 3.4 percent; alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 3.5 percent from 3.1 percent; and transport at 1.1 percent from 0.9 percent.

Food inflation alone rose to 4 percent in January this year from 3.5 percent in the previous month.

Rice, however, recorded a deflation of -2.3 percent, the lowest since the -2.8 percent in June 2020, Mapa said.

Mapa added that the main drivers to the upward trend in food inflati...