The Department of Agriculture (DA) has welcomed with “guarded optimism” the deceleration of inflation in September to a four-year low, mainly driven by a slower rise in food prices.

The country’s headline inflation eased to 1.9 percent in September, from 3.3 percent in August and 6.1 percent in September last year.

The food inflation slowed to 1.4 percent from 4.2 percent in the previous month, with rice inflation decelerating from 14.7 percent in August to 5.7 percent in September.

“Kami ay lubos na natutuwa (We are very happy). We are happy but with guarded optimism iyong lumabas na bagong inflation data (We are happy but with guarded optimism about the new inflation data),” DA spokesperson, Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa, said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

“Ang maganda rito, nitong mga nakalipas na buwan, iyong inflation dahil sa bigas ay consistently nasa 25 (percent) to 27 percent na level, so ngayon nasa single-digit level na siya at 5.7 percent (The good news is that over the past months, the inflation was consistently at the 25 [percent] to 27 percent level but has now decreased to a single-digit level).”

De Mesa said the reduced tariffs on rice from 35 percent to 15 percent helped decrease the rice prices.

He also touted the various government programs, including the “Rice for All’ and PHP29, for contributing “combined effects” in bringing down the prices.

With India’s lifting of its export ban on non-Basmati white rice, De Mesa said the DA expects prices to ease further in the coming months.

“Bagama’t pagdating ng holiday season, tumataas ang demand, of course, sa mga pagkain, but because of these new developments, we can expect mayroon pang kaunting pag-tame ng presyo ng bigas (While the demand increases during the holiday season, with these new developments, we can expect tamer prices in rice),” he said. (PNA)