MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine annual inflation eased for a fourth consecutive month in May due to slower increases in transport, food and non-alcoholic indices, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.

The consumer price index rose 6.1% in May from a year earlier, just below the 6.2% median forecast in a Reuters poll and slower than the 6.6% rate in April.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel

items, slowed to 7.7% from April's 7.9%.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)