Food, alcohol-free drinks push Guimaras’ headline inflation to 8.7% in October 2022

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages drove the headline inflation rate in Guimaras to 8.7 percent in October 2022, higher by 1.1 percentage points against September 2022 and a 5.8 percent increment from 2.9 in October 2021.

The data is based on the generated data of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Retail Price Survey (RPS) of Commodities conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data also showed that the average inflation for January to October in 2022 stood at 6.7 percent, higher than the 6.5 percent average last month.

“The 10.8 percent inflation in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages which shared 52.8 to the total inflation trend was mainly propelled by the food group with a 10.5 percent inflation rate,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

“The rising inflation in Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels at 5.8 percent, and Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 6.3 percent also pushed the October 2022 inflation of Guimaras,” Losare added.

Losare also expounded that the 5.8 percent inflation in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels, was mainly spurred by Electricity from All Sources: Coal, Solar, Hydro, etc (22.1%), Products and Materials- Paints, Varnishes, Renderings (6.6%), and Kerosene (39.7%).

The 6.3 inflation of Restaurants and Accommodation Services was mainly due to the annual price increment of Restaurants, and Café at 6.4 percent in October 2022 from 3.0 percent in September 2022.

Other commodities with a faster annual price increase in October 2022 were Transport (14.3%); Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (6.0%); Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance (5.3%); and Information and Communication (0.5%).

 “There were three commodity items that showed slower inflation in October 2022 against its previous month’s rate: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco from 8.0 percent to 7.9 percent; Health from 3.2 percent to 2.8 percent and; Education Services from 14.4 percent to -0.3 percent,” Losare elaborated

Losare further explained that only the Commodity groups of Clothing and Footwear; Recreation, Sport, and Culture; and Financial Services maintained their previous month’s inflation at 3.0, 19.3, and 0.0, percent, respectively.

The 8.7 inflation rates in October and July 2022 were the highest year-on-year rate recorded since 2019. (See table 3.)

“The inflation rate in October 2022 implied that the average price level of consumer goods and services increased to 8.7 percent from a low of 2.7 percent in October 2021”, Losare stated.

“A CPI of 121.4 means that an average Guimarasnon household needs 21.4 pesos more in October 2022 to buy a basket of goods worth 100 pesos in 2018. The CPI is used to compute the inflation rate for a given period,” Losare simplified.

Meanwhile, Losare cited that the average Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in October 2022 is at 0.82, which is lower when compared to the previous year’s 0.90, illustrating that the purchasing power of the peso depreciated, thereby interpreting that the one peso in 2018, is now valued at 0.82 centavos.

“The PPP for October was lower against the 0.83 in September 2022,” Losare said.