5-month uptrend in food inflation in Guimaras peaks at 4.1% in October

The year-on-year inflation, or the annual rate of change in price levels for food, in Guimaras continually rose for five straight months in 2021 and peaked at 4.1 percent in October due to faster increases in the prices of six heavily weighted food commodity items, based on data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Comparing inflation trends of Guimaras Province for 13 months from October 2020 to October 2021, the current 4.1 percent inflation rate is the fastest rate of change.

It is 5.3 percentage points faster than the -1.2 percent inflation in October 2020 and 0.5 percentage points quicker than September 2021.

“The last three months of 2020 got slower inflation, from a slump of –1.2 percent in October 2020 to a rise of 0.5 percent in December,” Provincial Statistics Office Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare also explained that food inflation in Guimaras Province in 2021 was erratic, which started at a lower rate of –0.5% in January, then jumped to 2.0% in February before sliding to 0.1% in March.

It further plopped to –0.6% in April 2021, which is the slowest rate of the province for 10 consecutive months of the current year. From then, inflation moved a bit faster to 0.5% in June and continually escalated until it hit the 4.1% inflation rate in October 2021.

The food commodity items which recorded higher markups in October 2021 over its 2020 prices that contributed to the swift movement of the inflation rate were:

• Meat at 16.8% from -8.2% a year ago
• Fish at 10.2% from 2.9%
• Milk, Cheese, and Eggs at 2.5% from 2.0%
• Fruit at 2.4% from -4.7%
• Vegetables at 13.1% from -5.0% in October 2020
• Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery at 2.2% from 0.2%

For the monthly rate of change in the prices of food commodities, October 2021 prices dropped to an average of –0.5 percent from the 0.3 percent in September of the same year, pulled down by the slower price movements of five food commodity items, namely:

• Bread and Cereals at –0.4% from –3.7% a month ago
• Rice at –5.0% from –4.6%
• Milk, Cheese, and Eggs at 2.5% from 3.1%
• Oils and Fats at 5.0% from 6.1%, and
• Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery at 2.2% from 2.4%

Despite the 0.8 percentage points dropped from September 2021 to October 2021, four (4) food commodity items moved a bit faster, specifically:

• Fish at 10.2% from 9.1% a month ago
• Fruit at 2.4% from 1.3%
• Vegetables at 13.1% from 8.9%, and
• Food Products N.E.C. at 2.4% from –1.9% in September 2021.

“The 3.2% inflation rate in February 2021 was the fastest food inflation of Guimaras province for 13 months which soared by 2.9 percentage points from a low of 0.3% in January brought about by the price increments of all food commodity items,” Losare said.

“November and December 2020 also recorded a faster rate of price change with 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, while the slower rate of price change at -0.9 and -0.5 was seen in March and October, respectively,” she added.