Food woes as Philippine inflation rises sharply

MANILA, Aug 05 (AFP): Philippine inflation shot up to a nearly three-year high of 4.9 per cent in July, as millions of poor Filipinos endured steep price rises for essential foods, official data showed Tuesday.

The consumer price increase was the highest since it spiked by 5.2 per cent in October 2011.

"This was mainly due to the jump in the growth of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index," the National Statistics Office said in a statement.

Also on the uptrend were housing, tap water, electricity and petrol prices, as well as transport costs and tuition fees, it added.

The Philippines has in recent years had one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, growing by 7.2 per cent in 2013 then slowing slightly to 5.7 per cent in the first quarter.

But President Benigno Aquino's government has been criticised for failing to combat deep poverty, with much of the country's new found wealth being soaked up by the nation's elite.