The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was among the top three causes of death in the Philippines in 2021, according to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Monday.

The PSA said that from January to October 2021, the leading causes of death in the country were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and deaths due to COVID-19.

The agency said that during this period, ischaemic heart diseases were the top cause of death with 110,332 cases or 18.3 percent of the total deaths in the country.

“This indicated an increase of about 28.0 percent from the 86,164 deaths or 16.9 percent of the total deaths in the same period of 2020,” it added.

The second top cause of death were cerebrovascular diseases with 58,880 deaths (9.7% share of the total) during the said period.

The PSA said this is 10.9 percent higher than the 53,082 cases recorded in the same period in 2020.

Deaths due to COVID-19 with virus identified was ranked as the third leading cause which accounted for 51,514 deaths (8.5% share), rising from rank 15 with 7,357 deaths (1.4% share) in the same period of 2020.

The PSA, however, noted that it separated COVID-19 cases under two classifications — COVID-19 with virus identified and COVID-19 virus not identified. Both were included in the top 10 leading causes of death in the country.

Registered deaths due to COVID-19 with virus not identified accounted for 23,771 or 3.9 percent of the total deaths from January to October 2021, making it the 8th leading cause of death.

Registered deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for a total of 75,285 deaths or 12.5 percent of the total registered deaths from January to October 2021.

The PSA said that the National Capital Region (NCR) registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 18,044 or 24.0 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths from January to October 2021.

CALABARZON ranked second with 16,630 deaths or 22.1%, while Central Luzon came in third with 14,252 deaths (18.9%).

Other top leading causes of death in the country are neoplasms or cancer with 48,937 recorded cases from January to October 2021, and diabetes mellitus with 38,584 cases, the PSA said.

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s inflation slowed down to an 11-month low of 3.6 percent in December, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday.

In a virtual briefing, National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa said the inflation has slowed down from the 4.2 percent recorded in November last year. However, this was still higher than the 3.5 percent recorded in December 2020.

The latest inflation figure brought the year-to-date figure to 4.5 percent which is above the government’s target of 2 to 4 percent.

Mapa said the December decelerated inflation was due to the slow movement of the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages.

“The main source of the downward trend of the December 2021 overall inflation was primarily brought about by the slower annual increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.1 percent in December 2021, from 3.9 percent in November 2021,” he said.

Mapa also noted that the onslaught of Typhoon Odette in Southern Luzon and the Visayas and Mindanao has not affected the prices of goods.

“Sa datos na nakita namin, kanina nireport ko, inflation outside the National Capital Region bumaba ang pesyo ng gulay e. So, hindi naman nagkaroon ng malaking epekto yung bagyo,” Mapa said.

“Of course, we will check regional data. Pero bumaba ang inflation due to reduction of food price. May nakita kaming pagtaas ng meat products, siguro because of the holidays, pero sa ibang products hindi tumaas talaga,” he added. —/mbmf

MANILA, Philippines — The inflation rate in the country slowed down in November, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Tuesday (December 7).

The PSA said the country’s inflation “continued to exhibit a slower pace as it eased further to 4.2 percent in November 2021, from 4.6 percent in October 2021”.

The average inflation from January to November 2021 remained at 4.5 percent. Inflation in November 2020 was posted at 3.3 percent.

The reason behind the downtrend in the overall inflation in November 2021 was the slow movement in the price index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.9 percent inflation.

“Ang dahilan ng pagbagal ng antas ng inflation nitong  Nobyembre 2021 ay ang mas mabagal na paggalaw ng presyo ng food and non-alcoholic beverages na may 3.9 % inflation at  93.2 % share sa pagbaba ng pangkalahatang inflation sa bansa,” PSA national statistician Dennis Claire Mapa said.

In addition, lower inflation was also recorded in the price of alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 7.5 percent, and furnishing, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house at 2.4 percent.

A downward trend was also registered in the inflation for food index as it slowed down further to 4.1 percent in November 2021, from 5.6 percent in the previous month.

By specific food item, the annual growth rate of vegetables dropped by -1.8 percent during the month, after posting a double-digit annual increase of 11.4 percent in October 2021.

Moreover, annual increases in the indices of meat and fish, slid at 10.7 and 7.9 percent, respectively.

However, on a month-on-month basis, both meat and pork recorded positive inflation at 2.4 and 4.2 percent, respectively.

“Pork prices continuously went down month-on-month from July to early-October. This means that our policy to temporarily import pork has been effective. However, the uptick in prices in November shows that we need to further ease administrative requirements for the unloading and distribution of stocks to encourage more importation and help bring back pork prices to their pre-African Swine Fever level,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said.

On the other hand, the PSA also noted that non-food inflation slightly rose to 4.1 percent from 3.8 percent for the same period.

This was caused mainly by high international crude oil prices, which drove up transport inflation to 8.8 percent from 7.1 percent.

Slight increase in inflation was also reflected in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 4.6 percent from 4.4 percent. —/mbmf