Guimaras inflation eases to 3.9 pct in December 2021

Inflation rate or the annual rate of change on the prices of goods and services in Guimaras in December 2021 slackened to 3.9 percent due to slower price movements of five commodity group items.

Last month’s inflation was 1 percentage point lower than December 2020’s 4.9 percent

The December 2021 inflation is also 0.3 percentage point lower than 4.2 percent rate in November 2021, based on the Retail Prices Survey (RPS) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

This means that the costs of goods and services purchased in December 2021 were 3.9 percent lesser than the prices of products purchased in December 2020 and in 0.3 percent in November 2021.

The slower inflation rates in December 2021 were due to reduced prices in Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (from 5.7 percent to -0.2 percent), Clothing and Footwear (from 4.8 percent to 1.9 percent) Health (from 3.9 percent to 1.9 percent); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House (from 4.2 percent to 3.1 percent), and Transport (from a high of 15.9 percent a year ago to 10.4 percent).

Weaker inflation in Actual Rentals for Housing (which dropped by -1.3 percent) and Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (which dropped to 2.7 percent from the 5.5%) also pushed down Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuel’s by -0.2 percent in December 2021, from 5.7 percent in December 2020.

The Clothing and Footwear Commodity Group dropped by 2.9 percentage points, from 4.8 percent in December 2020 to 1.9 percent in December 2021.

The health commodity group also went down to 1.9 percent which, is 2 percentage points lower than the 3.9 percent inflation in December 2020.

Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House commodity group also recorded a 1.1 percentage points decrease from 4.2 percent in December 2020 to 3.1 percent in December 2021.

The Transport commodity group also slackened by 5.5 percentage points from 15.9 percent in December 2020 to 10.4 percent in December 2021, mainly driven by slower price index in Transport Services.

Meanwhile, commodity group items that managed to inflate in December 2021 were Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (14.2 percent); Education (12.5 percent); Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (6.4 percent); Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (5.6 percent); Recreation and Culture (0.2 percent), and Communication (0.1 percent).

The commodities monitored by the PSA during the Retail Prices Survey (RPS) for December 2021 with an index of 131.7 means that an average Guimarasnon household needed PHP31.7 more in December 2021 to buy a basket of goods worth PHP100 in 2012.

Looking at the year-on-year inflation rate of December for nine consecutive years, 2016 and 2020 had the fastest rate of change at 4.9 percent each, and December 2015 had the slowest rate at 0 percent.

December inflation rates from 2013 until 2021 moved at a random and unpredictable pattern.

As shown in Figure 1, the notable high price changes were in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

Inflation rates moved erratically: from -0.0 percent in 2015, it climbed to 4.9 percent in 2016, then down to 2.5 percent and again soared to 4.7 percent in 2018.

It then dropped to 2.7 percent in December 2019 then peaked to 4.9 percent or an increase of 2.2 percentage points before settling to 3.9 percent in December 2021.