Guimaras’ 2023 food inflation starts at 9.2 pct

The 2023 food inflation in Guimaras started at a rate of 9.2 percent, 2.6 percent slower than the 11.8 percent in December 2022 and 0.2 percentage points lower than the January 2022 food inflation, based on the Retail Price Survey of Commodities for the Generation of the Consumer Price Index of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses commodity with an inflation rate of 17.4 percent in January shared 54.4 percent to food inflation trend,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

“Likewise, the 1.6 percent inflation of Rice; and 21.4 annual price increment of Fruits and nuts cut a 21.2 and 12.4 percent share to the January 2023 food inflation, respectively,” Losare added.

Other food items which contributed to the downtrend of the January 2023 food inflation in Guimaras were Sugar, confectionery, and desserts (39.5%); Fish and other seafood (7.5%); and Oils and fats (18.9%).

The 13-month food inflation trend shown in Figure 1 started at a 9.4 percent high in January 2022 and suddenly dropped to the lowest level of 3.2 percent in February. From then, the food inflation in Guimaras showed a continuous uptrend starting March until August, reaching the 12.1 percent peak.

The data also showed that food inflation slowed to 9.2 percent in September 2022 but then again moved quickly in the next few months until it reached 11.8 percent in December 2022.

Moreover, food inflation in the Province of Guimaras for 2023 started at a slower rate of 9.2 percent.