Price inflation in Aklan spikes to 6.3% in August 2022

Headline inflation in Aklan hit 6.3 percent in August 2022, faster by 4.2 percentage points compared to 2.1 percent inflation in August 2021, according to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Aklan.

It further increased from 5.8 percent inflation in July and posted the highest since January 2019.

The fast uptrend was mainly due to spikes in Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels at 4 percent, a 3.5-point jump from 0.5 percent in July.

Education services are up to 2.7 percent, from 1.1 percent in the past month, while recreation, sports, and culture inflated from 1.3 percent to 2.4 percent in a span of one month.

Also, inflation growths were noted in furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance, from 7 percent to 7.3 percent; and information and communication which went up to 1.2 percent from 1 percent inflation.

On the other hand, inflation slowed down for food and non-alcoholic beverages with 8.9 percent this month compared to 9.1 percent inflation in the past month. Also, health and transport commodities inflated slower than their previous month’s rate.

Meanwhile, the rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rates or had zero percent annual growths.

The downtrend inflation in food was due to slower annual price movements of fish and other seafoods with 4.6 percent from 9.1 percent in July; vegetables which declined to -0.3 percent from 2.9 percent in the past month; and ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified (n.e.c) slowed down to 2.7 percent from 3.6 percent a month ago.

Furthermore, the consumer price index of all commodities, on the average, was estimated at 114.6 in August, which resulted in the purchasing power of the peso at 87 centavos.

This can be interpreted that 100-peso worth of goods and services in 2018 can be bought at PhP114.60 in August 2022.

Inflation rate is the annual rate of change or increase in the consumer price indices of goods and services.

Consumer Price index (CPI), on the other hand, is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by the households relative to a base year.