Guimaras inflation for low-income households hits record low

The inflation rate for the bottom 30% income households in Guimaras dropped to a historic low of -0.1% in June 2025, marking the province’s first deflation in over a year and a significant decline from 8.5% in July 2024, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

“The slow-moving inflation in June 2025 for low-income households was primarily influenced by the dwindling year-on-year price changes in the heavily weighted housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which slowed to 1.0% during the month from 4.4% in May,” said Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare.

She added that the falling inflation rate of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which declined to -2.3% in June from -2.0% in May, and transport, which eased to 0.3% from 0.9%, also contributed to the overall deceleration.

The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group accounted for 64.7% of the June inflation downtrend, while food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport contributed 30.0% and 5.0%, respectively.

“From May to June 2025, the inflation slowdown was driven by slower price movement in electricity, gas and other fuels, which recorded 2.5% from 11.3%; meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 6.1% from 7.5%; and passenger transport by sea and inland waterway, which dropped to 12.7% from 39.2%,” Losare said.

A slower annual rate of change was also noted in recreation, sport and culture, which declined to -0.1% from 0.2%.

In contrast, personal care and miscellaneous goods and services showed a slight uptick at 1.5% in June from 1.4% in May.

Other major commodity groups, including alcoholic beverages and tobacco (9.9%), clothing and footwear (1.3%), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (0.2%), health (3.1%), information and communication (4.8%), education services (0.0%), restaurants and accommodation services (10.5%), and financial services (0.0%), retained their previous month’s annual rates.

In June 2025, food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed the most to overall inflation for the bottom 30% income households, accounting for a 1,027.2% share or 1.03 percentage points.

Within this group, key contributors were:

• Cereals and cereal products, particularly rice, with an inflation rate of -9.3%, contributing 1,537.7% or 1.57 percentage points.
• Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, especially other leafy or stem vegetables (fresh or chilled), which posted an -8.2% inflation rate and a 334.4% contribution or 0.33 percentage points.
• Oils and fats, notably margarine and similar products, with a 10.4% inflation rate, contributing 68.6% or 0.07 percentage points.

Despite the negative inflation in some items, their significant weight in the consumption basket of low-income households led to high contributions to the overall inflation rate.

Over the past 13 months, inflation for low-income households across Western Visayas has declined sharply, with most provinces posting deflation by June 2025.

In Guimaras, inflation for the bottom 30% dropped from 7.6% in June 2024 to -0.1% in June 2025, a 7.7 percentage point decrease and the province’s first recorded deflation for this group during the period.

Similarly, Aklan fell from 8.9% to -3.1%; Antique from 7.4% to -3.4%; Iloilo from 6.0% to -0.6%; and Capiz from 5.8% to 0.5%.

“The inflation rate is the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, derived by comparing indices from the same period of the previous year or month,” Losare explained.

She added that Guimaras posted a CPI of 133.6 in June 2025, meaning a typical low-income household would need PHP1,336 to buy the same basket of goods and services that cost PHP1,000 in 2018.