Western Visayas Inflation at 3.4% in December

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Inflation in Western Visayas slightly rose to 3.4% in December 2024, driven by rate increases in several key commodity groups. However, the region’s average inflation rate for 2024 dropped significantly.

The region’s December inflation climbed from 3.2% in November, marking a 0.2 percentage point increase. Despite this, the annual average inflation rate for 2024 stood at 3.7%, a sharp decline from the 6.9% average recorded in 2023.

Several commodity groups posted higher inflation rates in December compared to November, including:

• Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (4.8% from 3.3%)
• Furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance (4.1% from 3.4%)
• Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.7% from 3.1%)
• Recreation, sport, and culture (2.7% from 2.6%)
• Transport (1.8% from -0.1%)
• Information and communication (0.7% from 0.6%)

However, inflation slowed in key areas such as food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.8% from 3.3%), health (2.4% from 2.9%), and restaurants and accommodation services (5.6% from 6.0%).

Rates for clothing and footwear (4.4%), education services (8.1%), and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services (2.8%) remained unchanged between November and December.

Western Visayas recorded the second-highest inflation rate in December nationwide, trailing Cagayan Valley (4.6%) and exceeding the national average of 2.9%.

Other regions with relatively high inflation included the Cordillera Administrative, Central Luzon, and CALABARZON regions (3.3% each), National Capital Region (3.1%), and Ilocos, MIMAROPA, and Central Visayas (2.9% each).

2024 Inflation Overview

For 2024, Western Visayas’ annual average inflation rate (3.7%) ranked as the third-highest in the country, tied with MIMAROPA and Northern Mindanao.

Only two commodity groups recorded average inflation increases in 2024: health (2.9% from 2.7%) and education services (8.8% from 3.3%).

All other groups saw notable slowdowns, including:

• Food and non-alcoholic beverages (5.2% from 9.1%)
• Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.6% from 11.4%)
• Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (1.1% from 4.6%)
• Furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance (3.0% from 7.8%)
• Transport (1.1% from 2.9%)
• Recreation, sport, and culture (3.8% from 5.3%)
• Restaurants and accommodation services (5.7% from 10.5%)
• Financial services (-1.0% from 0.0%)

Davao Region posted the highest inflation in 2024 at 4.0%, followed by Central Luzon and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (3.9% each).

Bicol Region, SOCCSKSARGEN (3.5% each), and Cagayan Valley and Zamboanga Peninsula (3.4% each) rounded out the top five.

Western Visayas and several other regions exceeded the national average inflation rate for 2024, which stood at 3.2%, matching Central Visayas.

The data mentioned in this report was organized and sorted with the aid of the artificial intelligence (AI) platform ChatGPT. It was verified against the data provided by the PSA to ensure accuracy.

Daily Guardian adheres to a policy on the use of AI in its content, which may be viewed here.