Inflation races to 14-year high

UPDATE) INFLATION in the country surged to 7.7 percent in October, the highest increase in 14 years, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.The rate is likely to rise further in the last two months of the year, the PSA said.It rose from 6.9 percent in September and almost doubled the 4.0 percent a year earlier.The increase was higher than the 7.3 percent median in The Manila Times’ poll of analysts and was near the upper end of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 7.1 to 7.9 percent range for the month.The last time consumer price growth was higher was in December 2008 when it hit 8.2 percent.BSP Governor Felipe Medalla told Bloomberg on Friday that “our best guess is that it will peak either next month or the last month of the year.”The stock market initially fell on the news but was lifted by last-minute bargain hunting.The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index ended the day up 29.42 points or 0.48 percent to 6,185.53…
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