Guimaras’ inflation balloons to 6.5% in May 2022; highest in four years

Inflation rate or increase in the prices of goods and services in Guimaras province ballooned to 6.5 percent in May 2022 from 5.5 percent in April 2022, the highest inflation in four years.

This is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data generated from the Retail Price Survey (RPS) of Commodities conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Figure 1 shows that May 2022 got the highest inflation rate for 11 consecutive months since May 2021, also the highest inflation level recorded in 4 years (Table 2),” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

“The average inflation for the first five months of the current year stood at 5.2 percent, also higher than the 3.6 percent average inflation a year ago,” Losare added.

The uptrend in the Guimaras’ May 2022 inflation was mainly due to higher annual increments in the indices of heavily-weighted food and non-food commodities: Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 7.1 percent; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels, 5.4 percent, and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 5.1 percent.

“The 7.1 percent inflation in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, was propelled by the annual price increment in the indices of Food (6.9%) and the non-alcoholic beverages (10.3%),” Losare said.

Losare elaborated further that the price increments in the Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels (13.8%); and Maintenance, Repair, and Security of the Dwelling (9.4%) pushed the 5.4 inflation rate in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels Commodity group in May 2022.

 “The 5.1 percent inflation on Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services was due to the price increments of Other Personal Effects (other appliance, articles and products for personal care (ND) at 2.4 percent; and Personal Care (hairdressing) at 5.5 percent,” she said. 

Losare also emphasized that the other contributory factors to the marked up in the overall May inflation, were the higher annual increment in the indices of Transport (11.2%); Clothing and footwear (2.8%); Recreation, Sport, and Culture (16.9%); and Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (3.8%).

“Three commodity items, however, managed to slow down inflation rates in May 2022: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 7.8% from 7.9% a month ago; Health at 4.9% from 5.1%; and Restaurant and Accommodation Services at 1.5% from 1.6% in April 2022.

Meanwhile, the commodity groups of Information and Communication; Education Services; and Financial Services retained their previous month’s inflation rates at -0.2%, 14.8%, and 0.0%, respectively.