MANILA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The inflation in the Philippines in the first quarter of 2019 further decelerated to 3.8 percent from 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, mainly over a significant drop in food inflation due to improved supply conditions, the country's central bank said on Friday.

The headline inflation for the first quarter was within the government's target range of 3.0 percent or plus or minus 1.0 percentage point for the year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement.

The BSP said the official core inflation, which excludes selected volatile food and energy items to measure underlying price pressures, declined to 3.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019 from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Moreover, the BSP said inflation expectations of private sector economists for March 2019 showed that inflation forecasts for 2019 and 2020 were relatively lower to the results in December 2018.

Analysts noted that possible downside risks to inflation include the implementation of the rice tariffication law and lower global crude oil prices.

On the other hand, the BSP said the key upside risks to inflation were seen to emanate from adverse weather conditions such as El Nino, volatile global oil prices and foreign exchange market, and higher electricity rates.

The BSP said it maintained its monetary policy settings unchanged in the first quarter of 2019.

"The BSP decided to maintain its policy interest rate at 4.75 percent at the February and March monetary policy meetings based on its assessment of a more manageable inflation environment," the BSP said.

It said inflation pressures have eased further, mainly reflecting the decline in food inflation amid improved supply conditions, while inflation expectations have stabilized further during the quarter.