The country’s inflation rate accelerated to 7.2% in April, up from 4.1% in March, driven by higher costs of transportation, food, electricity and accommodation services, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.

The PSA also reported a sharper increase in inflation for the bottom 30% of income households, which climbed to 8.5% in April from 4.2% in March. This compares with just 0.1% inflation recorded for the same income group in April 2025.

From January to April 2026, average inflation for the bottom income group stood at 4.2%.

The faster overall inflation was largely driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages, which rose 8.4% in April from 3.9% in March.

Significant increases were also recorded in transport at 19.5% from 7.2%, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 9.9% from 4.7%.

Other commodity groups that posted higher annual increases included alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and footwear, health, recreation, and restaurants and accommodation services.

For lower-income households, food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the biggest contributor to inflation, accounting for 53.6% of the total or 4.6 percentage points. This was followed by housing, utilities and fuels with 17.7%, and transport with 14.9%.

PSA said most commodity groups recorded faster price increases compared to the previous month, while the rest remained unchanged.