Inflation for Guimaras’ low-income families slows to 6.4% in March 2023

Overall inflation for the bottom 30% income households in Guimaras slumped to 6.4 percent in March 2023, from a peak of 9.4% in February 2023.

This is according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) generated by the Retail Price Survey (RPS) of Commodities conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Despite the downward trend, the figure is still a bit faster, compared to the same month of the previous year at 5.5%. The annual average inflation of the bottom 30% income group from January to March 2023 stood at 7.7 percent, faster than the annual average of the same period a year ago registered at 5.7%,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare said that based on relative poverty concept, households whose per capita income falls below the bottom 30 percent of the cumulative per capita distribution belong to the low-income group.

“The inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent income households, who are the most vulnerable to economic and social difficulties, was computed to monitor their welfare,” she added.

The slower movement on the rate of change in the prices of three heavily weighted commodity groups pulled down inflation for all income households of the bottom 30 percent to 6.4 percent in March 2023 from the 9.4 in February 2023.

The bottom 30 percent income households mostly spent on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, which accounted for a 80.8 percent share, contributing 5.6 percentage points to the 6.4 percent inflation in March 2023 (See Table 1).

Following with a large gap are Restaurants & Accommodation Services (7.6) share, Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (6.5) contribution to the inflation trend chipping in 0.5 and 0.4 percentage points, correspondingly to the 6.4% inflation rate of Guimaras Province in March 2023 (See Table 1).

Other commodity groups that contributed to the slower inflation rate in March 2023 were:

Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (7.3 from 18.6); Clothing and Footwear (0.9 from 2.4); Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.4 from 7.9); Furnishing, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (7.3 from 8.5); Transport (4.3 from 4.0); and Recreation, sports, and culture (9.5 from 12.3)

Meanwhile, three commodity groups posted higher year-on-year inflation rate during the month: Health (-3.9 from -4.2); Information and Communication (1.4 from 0.9); and Personal care, and miscellaneous (14.9 from 14.4)

“Two commodity groups retained their price indices in February and March 2023, Education and Financial Services, with steady inflation rates of -0.2% and 0.0%, respectively,” Losare said.