Guimaras’ food inflation closes at 11.8 pct in December 2022

Food inflation in Guimaras closed at 11.8 percent in December 2022, a bit faster than the 11.7 percent in November 2022 and 6.4 percent quicker than the 5.4 percent food inflation in December 2021, based on the Retail Price Survey of Commodities for the Generation of Consumer Price Index of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Fruits and nuts commodity with an inflation rate of 28.2 percent in December shared 52.7 percent to inflation trend,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

“Likewise, the 11.9 percent inflation of Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals; and 10.3 annual price increment of Milk, other dairy products, and eggs cut a 23.7 and 8.9 percent share to the December 2022 food inflation, respectively,” Losare added.

Other food items which contributed to the uptrend in the December 2022 food inflation were Fish and other seafood (7.8%); Sugar, confectionery and desserts (48.1%); Ready-made food and other food products n.e.c. (3.1%); and Corn (19.0%).

The food inflation rate for December 2021 was 5.4 percent and expanded to 9.4 percent at the beginning of 2022. In February, food inflation dropped to 3.2 percent and showed a continuous uptrend in the succeeding months, starting March until August at a record high of 12.1 percent food inflation in 2022.  (See Figure 1).

The data also showed that food inflation slowed down in September 2022 and moved faster until it peaked at 11.8 percent in December 2022. (See figure 1)

“The average food price changes for the 12 months of the current year stood at 8.8 percent, the highest average food inflation since 2019, while the slowest average food inflation was seen in 2021 at -0.3%,” Losare said.

The highest food inflation rate recorded in four years was 12.1% in August 2022, while the slowest was in January 2021 at -3.9 percent. (See Table 3).