Negros Occidental bottom 30 percent inflation eases to 0.1 percent

Inflation for the bottom 30 percent of households in Negros Occidental cooled again in January 2026, landing at 0.1 percent.

That’s a notch lower than 0.4 percent in December 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Feb. 13, 2026 release.

A year earlier, it looked very different. In January 2025, inflation for the same group in the province was 2.3 percent.

PSA data shows that in January 2026, the Philippines recorded an inflation rate of 1.6 percent, down from 2.4 percent in January 2025 and up from 1.1 percent in December 2025, with a year-to-date rate of 1.6 percent.

The Negros Island Region posted 0.2 percent inflation in January 2026, compared to 1.9 percent in January 2025 and 0.3 percent in December 2025, with a year-to-date rate of 0.2 percent.

Negros Occidental recorded 0.1 percent inflation in January 2026, down from 2.3 percent in January 2025 and 0.4 percent in December 2025, with a year-to-date rate of 0.1 percent.

Bacolod City registered 0.4 percent inflation in January 2026, significantly lower than the 3.2 percent recorded in January 2025 and down from 1.4 percent in December 2025, with a year-to-date rate of 0.4 percent.

All items are based on the 2018=100 index.

In Negros Occidental, the PSA pointed first to Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, which slid further into negative territory: -0.5 percent in January 2026 from -0.1 percent in December 2025.

Transport also swung hard. It dropped to -1.9 percent in January 2026 after sitting at 0.5 percent the month before. And Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco eased too, down to 5.9 percent from 8.1 percent.

Even with that slowdown, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco still carried the most weight in the province’s overall inflation for the bottom 30 percent—5.9 percent in January 2026, compared with 8.1 percent in December 2025, the PSA said.

Looking at the month-by-month run for Negros Occidental (all items; bottom 30 percent; 2018=100), PSA listed these year-on-year rates: January 2025: 2.3 percent, February: 1.7 percent, March: 3.2 percent, April: 2.0 percent, May: 2.1 percent, June: 0.5 percent, July: -0.2 percent, August: -0.9 percent, September: 1.0 percent, October: -0.3 percent, November: 0.1 percent, December: 0.4 percent, and January 2026: 0.1 percent.

Bacolod City moved in the same direction, just not quite as low. Inflation for the bottom 30 percent there slowed to 0.4 percent in January 2026 from 1.4 percent in December 2025, based on the PSA report.

And again, compared with last year, it’s a big drop. Bacolod City’s bottom 30 percent inflation rate was 3.2 percent in January 2025.

PSA flagged Restaurants and Accommodation Services as the main reason Bacolod’s inflation cooled in January—shifting to -0.7 percent from 3.3 percent the month before.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages also pulled down harder in the city, at -0.9 percent in January 2026 versus -0.2 percent in December 2025. Meanwhile, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels slowed to 3.6 percent from 4.5 percent.

For Bacolod City’s overall inflation in January 2026, the PSA said the top three contributing commodity groups were Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (3.6 percent from 4.5 percent), Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (3.5 percent from 4.6 percent), and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (1.9 percent from 3.8 percent).

The PSA also restated what the Consumer Price Index (CPI) actually is: it tracks changes in the average retail prices of a fixed “basket” of goods and services, measured against a base period in which the base year is pegged at 100.

As for inflation itself, PSA defined it as the year-on-year percent change in the CPI. It can go up or down (deflation), and the agency added a reminder people often miss: a positive rate that’s lower than the month before still means prices are higher than a year ago – “It does not mean that the prices of commodities have decreased.”

The CPI for the bottom 30 percent income households is compiled specifically for families in the bottom 30 percent income decile, PSA said, using the same collection and computation process as the CPI for all income households, but with its own market basket and weights.