Guimaras inflation spirals in five months to hit 8.7 pct in July 2022

inflation rate in Guimaras incessantly moved up in five consecutive months to peak at 8.7% in July 2022 from 8 percent in June 2022.

The latest rate 4.9 percentage points higher than 3.8 in July 2021, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data generated from the Retail Price Survey (RPS) of Commodities conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). (See table 1.)

“Based on the price movements we monitored, the average inflation for January to July in the year 2022 is at 6.1 percent,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

The uptrend in the Guimaras’ July 2022 inflation was primarily due to the higher annual increment in the indices of the heavily weighted non-food commodities – Food and non-Alcoholic Beverages, 11.8 percent; Transport, 15.1 percent; and Clothing and Footwear, 3.1 percent.

“The 11.8 percent inflation in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, was mainly propelled by the annual price increment in the indices of Food (11.9%) and the non-alcoholic beverages (11.3%),” Losare said.

Inflation rate of the Transport Commodity group escalated to 15.1 percent in July 2022, with a 1.2 percent difference compared to 13.9 percent in June 2022.

The 45.5 percent price hike in the operation of personal transport equipment and the 2.6 percent increment in passenger transport services drove the 15.1 percent inflation.

Clothing and Footwear inflation ascended to 3.1 percent in July 2022 from 2.9 percent in June 2022, indicating an increase of 0.2 percent, mainly due to the increased price of footwear with 5.4 percent, and clothing at 2.4 percent.

Losare also emphasized that the other contributory factor to the marked up in the overall July inflation was the higher annual increment in the index of Furnishing, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance at 4.6 percent.

“Several commodity items, however, managed to slow down their inflation rates in July 2022 compared to its indices a month ago: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 6.2% from 6.5%; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels at 3.5% from 5.3%; Health at 4.1% from 5.5%; Recreation Sports and Culture at 18.5% from 108.9%; Restaurant Accommodation Services at and -0.1 from 3.0%; and Personal Goods and Services at 5.1% from 5.4%.”

She further explained that only the commodity groups of Education Services, Information and Communication, and Financial Services maintained their previous month’s inflation at 14.8,     -0.1, and 0.0 percent, respectively.

Data also revealed that July 2022 got the highest inflation rate since July 2021. (See figure 1)

The PSO also expounded that the 8.7 percent inflation in July 2022 is a record-breaking which contributed to the fastest year-on-year rate recorded since 2019. (See table 3)

“The inflation rate in July 2022 denoted that the prices of goods and services have increased, on average, by 8.7 percent compared to the prices in July 2021,” Losare stated.

“A CPI of 121.5 means that an average Guimarasnon household needs 21.5 pesos more in July 2022 to buy a basket of goods worth 100 pesos in 2018, and the CPI is used to compute the inflation rate for a given period.”

Meanwhile, Losare cited that the average Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in July 2022 is at 0.82, which is lower when compared to the previous year’s 0.89, illustrating that the purchasing power of the peso depreciated, thereby interpreting that the one peso in 2018, is now valued at 0.82 centavos.

“The July 2022 PPP is also lower against 0.83 in June 2022,” Losare said.