Manila, Sep 5 (IANS): Year-on-year inflation in the Philippines ended its downtrend in August, accelerating to 5.3 per cent from 4.7 per cent in July, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

"The uptrend in the overall inflation in August 2023 was the higher year-on-year increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages at 8.1 percent from 6.3 percent in July," PSA head Dennis Mapa told a press conference.

Specifically, Mapa said the higher prices of rice and vegetables pumped the inflation in food prices, reports Xinhua news agency.

Rice inflation rose by 8.7 per cent in August from 4.2 per cent in July, while vegetable inflation rose by 31.9 per cent from 21.8 pe rcent due to production losses from the enhanced monsoon rains and typhoon.

Mapa said the transport inflation rose by 0.2 per cent from an annual decline of 4.7 per cent in July, and the recreation, sport, culture index, which rose by 4.9 per cent in August from 4.7 per cent in July, also contributed to the elevated August inflation rate.

The August inflation rate brought the national average inflation from January to August to 6.6 per cent, Mapa added.

"Despite the ongoing challenges we encounter, such as severe weather conditions and trade limitations imposed by other nations, our objective remains to achieve an inflation rate between 2 and 4 per cent by the year's end," National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank expects inflation in the Philippines to average 6.2 per cent in 2023 before easing to 4 per cent in 2024.