Negative inflation hits Guimaras in July 2025 — first this year

Guimaras recorded a -0.5% inflation rate in July 2025, marking its first negative inflation this year and the lowest since mid-2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority Guimaras.

The rate continued a steady slowdown from 0.8% in May and 0.5% in June, and was a sharp drop from 6.8% in July 2024.

“This decline reflects easing price pressures across major commodity groups, in line with the regionwide downtrend in Western Visayas, where inflation fell from 4.5% in July 2024 to just 0.6% in July 2025,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

She explained that negative inflation, or deflation, signals a general decrease in average prices of goods and services compared with the same month last year.

Guimaras’ year-to-date average of 0.7% remains the lowest among Western Visayas provinces and well below the national and regional averages of 1.7% and 2.0%, respectively.

“The downtrend in overall inflation in July 2025 was primarily influenced by slower annual changes in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index at -3.2% during the month, from -1.8% in June 2025,” Losare said.

She added that slow-moving annual price changes in transport at -1.8% in July 2025 from 0.1% in June, and health at 1.0% from 1.4%, also contributed to the decline.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 82.8% of the July downtrend, while transport and health contributed 15.5% and 1.4%, respectively.

From June to July 2025, prices of cereals and cereal products fell to -11.1% from -8.5%, while fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment dropped to -12.2% from -6.0%.

Health saw a slower annual price index at 1.0% in July 2025 from 1.4% in June 2025.

In contrast, only personal care and miscellaneous goods and services posted faster inflation at 1.4% from 1.3% in June 2025.

Eight other commodity groups retained their June inflation rates: alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 7.7%, clothing and footwear at 2.6%, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.2%, furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at 0.0%, information and communication at 2.9%, education services at -0.8%, restaurants and accommodation services at 10.4%, and financial services at 0.0%.

In July 2025, food and non-alcoholic beverages had the largest impact on overall inflation at 332.9% contribution, or 1.66 percentage points, driven mainly by the -11.1% drop in cereals and cereal products, particularly rice.

Transport followed with a 26.1% share, or 0.13 percentage points, largely due to a -12.2% decline in fuels and lubricants for personal transport equipment, particularly gasoline.

From June to July 2025, Western Visayas maintained its inflation rate at 0.6%, with several provinces, including Guimaras, moving into negative territory.

Guimaras’ rate fell from 0.8% in May to 0.5% in June, and to -0.5% in July—its first deflation in over a year—after having the highest rate in July 2024 at 6.8%.

The province’s slowdown mirrored the regional trend, as inflation dropped from 4.5% in July 2024 to 0.6% in July 2025.

Aklan and Antique saw negative inflation earlier, while Capiz posted slower rates, and Iloilo and Iloilo City remained positive.

“The inflation rate is the rate of change in the consumer price index, derived by comparing indices to the same period in the previous year or month,” Losare said.

She added that Guimaras posted a 132.1 CPI, meaning a typical household needed PHP1,321 in July 2025 to buy a basket of goods and services worth PHP1,000 in 2018.

“The purchasing power of the peso in Guimaras was at PHP0.76 in July 2025, indicating that one peso in 2018 is now worth 76 centavos,” Losare said.