MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – It’s good. It’s bad. No it’s good. No it’s bad.

This sums up the latest pronouncement from the Philippine Statistics Authority on the country’s inflation rate.

Mathematicians may have their own magic potion to understand numbers, but the ordinary Filipinos don’t.

In a single post/graphic, PSA proudly announced that the country’s inflation rate for April this year improved to 6.6.% compared to last March’s 7.6%. But it proceeded to remind Filipinos that in April last year, the inflation rate was 4.9%. Then, it summarizes the post to say that the average inflation rate from January to April this year was 7.9%.

So, is PSA a PR arm, or a critic of government?