MANILA, March 5 -- The government is intensifying its efforts to mitigate the effects of the El Nino phenomenon and help keep the inflation rate within target.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) made the statement on Tuesday after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that headline inflation accelerated to 3.4 percent in February this year.

The headline inflation during the month was still within the government's 2 to 4 percent target but higher than the 2.8 percent recorded in January this year.

In a briefing, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the headline inflation last month however was lower than the 8.6 percent recorded in February last year.

Core inflation which excludes volatile oil and foo...