THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that headline inflation rose to 3.7 percent in March from 3.4 percent in February. It revealed that the main factor was high food prices, which contributed 57 percent to total inflation.

Rising rice prices, in turn, were the driving force behind higher food inflation. The PSA noted that rice inflation accelerated to 24.4 percent in March compared to 23.7 percent in February. It was described as the fastest rice inflation in 15 years since the record high of 24.6 percent in February 2009.