Food, non-alcoholic drinks puff up Guimaras’ low-income inflation to 5.5% in May 2023

Swelling prices of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 7.6 inflation pushed further the overall inflation for the bottom 30% income households (HHs) in Guimaras to 5.5 percent in May 2023 from 5.1 percent in April 2023.

This 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).

The 7.6 percent inflation on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages largely contributed to the faster May Inflation for the bottom 30% income Households by 82.7 percent, followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 12.6 percent inflation and Restaurants and Accommodation Services (13.2 percent), Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare elaborated that inflation in Food and Non- Alcoholic Beverages was mainly due to price hikes the food groups, specifically in Rice (9.1), Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses (15), and Sugar, confectionery and desserts (43.2).

Other commodities with significant contributions to the food inflation in May 2023 were:

-Fruits and nuts (26.6);

-Milk, other dairy products, and eggs (12.3);

-Oils and fats 36.2); and

-Flour, Bread and Other Bakery Products, Pasta Products, and Other Cereals (6.7).

“Overall, the food inflation for low-income households in May moved faster to 7.9 percent from 7.0 percent a month ago, and an increment of 2.2 percentage points from 5.7 food inflation in May 2022, while the Non-Alcoholic Beverages slowed to 3.6 percent in May 2023 against the 4.3 percent rate last month,” Losare said.

Aside from the top 3 commodities with the high contribution (Table 1), the other non-food commodity items that swayed up the headline inflation of the bottom 30% income HHs in May 2023 were: Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services with 12.7 percent; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance ( 4); and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (0.5).

Other non-food commodities which contributed less than 1 percent were: Recreation, Sport, and Culture, with; Information and Communication; and Clothing and Footwear.

The inflation rate from the bottom 30% income HHs in May 2023 implied that the average price changes of consumer goods and services moved faster to 5.5 percent from 5.1 percent in April 2023.

“A CPI of 123.2 indicates that a low-income household in Guimaras will require 1,232 pesos in May 2023 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1,000 pesos in 2018.

The CPI determines the inflation rate for a specific period, including the Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP).

“The PPP in Guimaras at 0.81 indicates that one peso in 2018 is worth 0.81 centavos in May 2023, representing a 0.04 percentage points depreciation from the PPP value of 0.85 recorded in May 2022,” Losare added.

Losare also highlighted that based on the relative poverty concept, households whose per capita income falls below the bottom 30 percent of the cumulative per capita distribution belong to the low-income group.

“The inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent income households, who are the most vulnerable to economic and social difficulties, was computed to monitor their welfare,” Losare said.