Guimaras’ headline inflation continues to escalate in Sept 2023 due to rising food prices

The annual rate of price change in Guimaras province elevated consistently in September due to the rising retail prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages with 9.6 percent inflation, contributing 79.9 percent to the 5.2 percent headline inflation, based on the latest price statistics released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Other commodities that showed a significant contribution to September inflation uptrend were Transport with -10.2 percent inflation and Education Services with -7.3 percent inflation, sharing 8.2 and 5.6 percent, respectively to the total inflation of Guimaras Province,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Food items with an inflation of 10.1 percent contributed 79.2 percent to the 9.6 percent inflation on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, while non-alcoholic beverages chipped in 0.8 percent, only.

“Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals (ND); Cereals and cereal products (ND); and Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses (ND) with 8.1, 9.8, and 40.6 percent inflation correspondingly, were the top contributors of food items, while Soft Drinks (ND) and Cocoa Drinks (ND) were the main drivers of non-alcoholic beverages,” Losare said.

The -10.2 inflation of Transport group items was mainly due to the faster price change of Operation of Personal Transport Equipment with -6.0 percent inflation, while the Secondary Education (S) with -9.6 percent inflation contributing 3.9 percent pushed the Education Services to -7.3 percent,” she added.

Other commodities with faster inflation in September 2023 were the commodity groups of Clothing and Footwear (0.96%); Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance (6.5%); Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (6.1%); and Recreation, Sport and Culture (4.6%).

However, Losare cited that four commodity groups recorded slower price indices, namely: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 9.9% from 10.1%; Housing, water, electricity, Gas, and other Fuels at 0.8% from 2.3%; Information and Communication at -0.5% from 0.4%; and Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 8.1% from 11.3%.

The data also showed that Health (1.7%) and Financial Services (0.0%) posted a steady inflation rate in September 2023.

Inflation Rate is the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) derived by computing the indices relative to the same period in the previous year or month, Losare clarified.

“Currently, Guimaras Province posted a 126.8 CPI, this indicates that a typical Guimarasnon household needs 1,268 pesos in September 2023 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1000 pesos in 2018,” she added.

“The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in Guimaras at 0.79 in September 2023 indicates that the one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.79 centavos, representing a 0.04 percentage points depreciation from the PPP value of 0.83 recorded in September 2022.”