INFLATION could moderate to 5.6 percent this month from 6.1 percent in September, an economist said, mainly due to better weather conditions that are helping stabilize food prices.

'The palay harvest season from mid-September 2023 to October 2023 that increased local palay/rice supply could have also helped stabilize or even helped ease local palay and rice prices, which accounts for nearly 9 percent of the CPI (consumer price index) basket,' Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said in a report.