Guimaras’ inflation spikes to 3.7 percent in August

Guimaras’ headline inflation rate accelerated to 3.7 percent in August 2020 after being stuck for at 3.5 percent, according to the results of the Survey on Retail Prices of Commodities conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“A 3.7 percent inflation rate means that the prices of products in August 2020 have increased, on the average, by 3.7 percent compared to the prices of products in August 2019, the highest figure so far since May of the current year, Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare explained.

The upsurge was due to the annual price increments on both food and non-food items (August 2019 vs. August 2020) tempered by the – 0.9 percent decrement in Recreation and Culture and the unchanged rate for Communication and Education with 99.9 and 118.1 indices, respectively.

Annual cost for food and non-food items also rose:

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 0.5% (129.3 vs. 129.9);

Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 20.6% (228.2 vs. 275.3);

Clothing and Footwear, 3.3% (115.2 vs. 119.0);

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels, 5.4% (121.4 vs. 128.0);

Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House, 2.5% (134.3 vs. 137.7);

Health, 5.4% (112.8 vs. 118.9);

Transport, 5.9% (99.5 vs. 105.4); and

Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods & Services, 3.5% (112.9 vs.116.8).

“All the above-mentioned items generated a CPI of 125.2 for the month of August 2020 which means that an average Guimarasnon household needs PhP25.2 more to buy a basket of goods worth PhP100 in 2012,” Losare said.

Moreover, based on its monthly data (July 2020 vs. August 2020), five commodity groups showed increasing costs:

Clothing & Footwear, 0.4% (118.5 vs. 119.0);

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels, 2.1% (125.4 vs. 128.0);

Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House, 0.2% (137.4 vs. 137.7);

Health 0.1% (118.8 vs. 118.9);

and Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services 2.3% (114.2 vs.116.8).

Four commodity groups – Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Transport; and Recreation & Culture – decreased by 0.8, 0.5, 0.3 and 1.2 percent, respectively.

Communication and Education remain unchanged for the months of August on its monthly CPI result (July 2020 vs. August 2020) with the same index on the annual result (August 2019 vs. August 2020).

Comparing inflation rates across provinces of Western Visayas, Guimaras placed second among the provinces with the fastest inflation, next to Negros Occidental with 4.1 percent then followed by Iloilo with 2.8 percent; while the slowest was seen in the provinces of Antique (1.3%) and Aklan (1.8%), followed by Capiz with 2.1 percent for the month of August 2020 (See Figure 2).