Guimaras food inflation falls to 9.8% in June 2024

The food inflation rate in Guimaras province dropped to 9.8% in June 2024 from 11.6% in May 2024, marking a 1.8 percentage point decrease.

Despite this decline, the June 2024 food inflation rate remains higher by 2.9 percentage points compared to the 6.9% recorded in June 2023.

“Guimaras’ food inflation is even higher than the regional and national levels in May and June 2024,” said Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare.

The reduction in food inflation was largely driven by a monthly decrease in cereals and cereal products, which saw a 20.8% inflation rate in June 2024, down from 24.4% in May 2024. This category accounted for 61.1% of the total food inflation rate in Guimaras.

Losare highlighted, “The deceleration of food inflation in May 2024 was primarily influenced by the monthly decrease in cereals and cereal products.”

Contributing to the overall downtrend were slower increases in other categories. Fish and other seafood inflation dropped to 2.3% in June from 5.6% in May, contributing 32.6% to the June 2024 food inflation. Ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified saw an inflation decrease to 11.0% from 15.1% in the previous month, with a 6.3% share.

In contrast, some commodity groups experienced faster inflation rates. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals rose to 16.6% from 16.2%. Milk, other dairy products, and eggs increased to 4.4% from 3.8%. Oils and fats improved slightly to -1.3% from -1.8%, while fruits and nuts saw a marginal improvement to -16.0% from -17.1%. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses recorded a food inflation rate of 10.2%, up from 9.4%.

The top three contributors to the June 2024 overall food inflation were cereals and cereal products, with a 71.3% contribution (6.99 percentage points); meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, contributing 19.5% (1.91 percentage points); and vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses, contributing 6.6% (0.64 percentage points).