MANILA -- Philippine consumer prices eased to its lowest level in 20 months, pulled by lower food and non-food prices amid the decline in electricity and fuel costs.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the country's headline inflation declined to 2.2 percent in April 2015 from 2.4 percent in the previous month.

National Economic and Development Authority Deputy Director-General Emmanuel Esguerra said last month's figure is well within the Development Budget Coordination Committee's inflation target range of 2.0 to 4.0 percent.

PLDT sees costly, painful fight

MANILA - Philippine Long Distance Telephone, the country's largest telecommunications firm, said yesterday it expects to spend nearly $1 billion in a "painful" fight to survive the consumer shift to digital from traditional phone services.

The listed company said net profit for the first three months of the year was flat at P9.4 billion ($211 million), and the full-year net profit would likely fall below the P34.1 billion it posted last year.

The company said the growth in its mobile Internet business had not been strong enough to offset the decline in its traditional revenue sources -- voice calls and text messaging -- that account for 60 percent of the total.

No more animal deaths
from El Niño, vet says

No more livestock animal deaths were reported in Negros Occidental due to the dry spell caused by the El Niño phenomenon, Provincial Veterinary Officer Renante Decena said, yesterday.

Decena said total losses in livestock in the province was still P10,358,400 as of yesterday although the monitoring by the paravets in the towns and cities continue.

He said the Negros Occidental Provincial government has allotted P8 million for mitigating schemes to protect farm animals from the drastic effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

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