MANILA, July 5 : The year-on-year inflation in the Philippines accelerated to 6.1 per cent in June from 5.4 per cent in May, mainly due to higher prices in food and non-alcohol beverages and transport, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

PSA head Dennis Mapa said the June inflation was the highest recorded since October 2018.

The average inflation for the first half of this year stood at 4.4 percent.

The acceleration of inflation rate was primarily due to the higher annual growths in the food and non-alcohol beverages index at 6.0 percent, and transport index at 17.1 percent, Mapa said.

Mapa said the national food inflation rose further to 6.4 per cent in June.

The higher annual growth in the meat and other parts of land animals index at 8.1 percent primarily contributed to the elevated food inflation.

"Also contributing to the uptrend in the food inflation were the fruits and nuts food group, which registered an inflation rate of 1.1 per cent, from -2.4 per cent in the previous month," he added.

 - Xinhua