MANILA - Inflation in September quickened to its fastest pace since March 2015, beating analysts' expectations, as prices of food and fuel rose, the government said Tuesday.

The consumer price index rose 2.3 percent last month, higher than the median estimate of 2.1 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey. Headline CPI rose 1.8 percent in August and 0.4 percent in September last year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority said it monitored higher annual increments in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and footwear, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house and transportation.

The September figure was within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' forecast range for the month and brought the year-to-date average to 1.6 percent, Governor Amando Tetangco said.

"This outturn is consistent with our expectation that inflation will slowly inch up towards the national government target range over the policy horizon," he said.

"This also confirms that at moment there is no compelling reason to change settings on our policy rates," he said.

Tetangco said the BSP would monitor the possible impact of financial market volatility and proposed tax reforms on consumer prices.