Guimaras’ Inflation eases for 5 straight months hitting the slowest rate in July at 2.3%

Guimaras. The headline inflation rate of the province eased for five consecutive months hitting the slowest rate of 2.3 percent in July 2023, showing a reduction of 6.4 percentage points against July 2022 inflation (8.7%) due to the decelerated rates of three heavily weighted commodity groups, based on the latest price statistics released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“In 2023, the Guimaras’ inflation rate for all items started at a rate of 8.0 percent in January, and quickly moved to 9.0 percent in February, then slowed to 6.4% in March and continuously fell until July,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

The same trend noted in the commodity groups of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, recorded its peak at 11.5 percent in February of the current year and continuously moved down in five straight months until it reached the slowest rate of 4.0 percent in July. See Figure 1.

Table 1 shows the top three (3) contributors to the slowest inflation rate in July: Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, with 82.4 percent share pulled down the Guimaras’ inflation rate to its slowest level at 2.3 percent, followed by Transport with a 15.8 percent share, and Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance with a 1.5 percent share.

Losare also elaborated that the slower inflation of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages was mainly due to the reduced prices of Food Groups, with 4.0 percent inflation lower by 2.9 percentage points from the 6.9 percent food inflation in June 2023.

The -16.6 inflation in  Transport was caused by the sluggish price movement on Passenger Transport Services, with -15.4% inflation and on Parts and accessories for personal transport equipment, with 1.1% inflation.

Losare explained further that the 6.0 percent inflation of Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance also showed a significant share in the downtrend of July inflation due to the sluggish price movements of Domestic services and household services with 12.3% inflation and Major household appliances with 6.04% inflation.

Losare also highlighted that there were four commodity groups recorded an increment in price indices: Clothing and footwear, 0.2% from 0.1%; Housing, water, electricity, Gas, and other Fuels at 2.7% from 0.3%; Health, 0.6% from -0.5%, and; Recreation, sports, and culture, 5.0% from 4.8%. See Table 2

The data also showed that Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (9.9%), Information and Communication (0.4%), Education Services (-0.3%), Restaurants and Accommodation Services (11.3%), and Financial Services (0.0%) posted a steady inflation rate in July 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.

“The CPI of 124.3 in July 2023 indicates that a typical Guimarasnon household needs 1,243 pesos in July 2023 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1000 pesos in 2018,” Losare added.

“The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in Guimaras at 0.80 in July 2023 indicates that the one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.80 centavos, representing a 0.02 percentage points depreciation from the PPP value of 0.82 recorded in July 2022”, Losare said.