Meralco cuts rates

The inflation computations were arrived at even as the  Manila Electric. Co. trimmed electricity rates by 16.37 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to P12.9508 per kWh last month from P13.1145 per kWh in December, which meant households consuming an average of 200 kWh paid P33 less in their monthly electricity bill.

In January 2025, Meralco charged its customers P11.7428 per kWh.

In his presentation, Mapa noted that liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) added price pressures, as inflation settled at -2.8% in January from -5.1% in December.

In January, Petron Corp. hiked LPG prices by P2.18 per kilogram (kg), while Solane imposed a P2.18-per-kg increase.

This means that the price of a household-standard 11-kg LPG tank ranged from P820 to P1,120 last month, based on data from the Department of Energy.

Meanwhile,  Mapa noted that lessors often begin implementing rental rate adjustments in the first month of the year, which likely propped up rental inflation in January.

“Our reading is that January marks the start of the yearly rental adjustments,” he said in mixed Filipino and English, adding there could be further increases in February and March.

Hotels and restaurants were hit with rising rent and energy supplies, reporting a 4% increase, the highest since September 2024.

For restaurants, cafés and the like, inflation picked up to 4.1% in January, from 2.6% in December.

“Energy prices are also rising because, of course, you’re using electricity — maybe rent, since rental prices for places are going up too, plus perhaps wages. So, these are contributing factors to those increases,” Mapa said.

However, slower inflation for the heavily weighted food and nonalcoholic beverages index tempered overall price pressures in January. 

Food inflation eased to 1.1% from 1.4% in December, as better weather conditions boosted local agriculture production and normalized prices.

Particularly, inflation for vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses slowed sharply to 3.3% from 11.6% in the previous month.