06 March 2024 – Guimaras. The inflation (all items) of Guimaras province marginally swayed up to 5.9% in February, against a 4.6 percent level a month ago, due to the fast-moving rate of change in the prices of food commodity groups with 9.0% inflation in February 2024 from 6.3% a month ago, based on the latest price statistics released by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA).

Figure 1: Inflation Rates in Guimaras (All Income Households), (2018=100), All Items vs. Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages: February 2023- February 2024

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages are the primary sources and contributors to the 5.9% February inflation (all items) of Guimaras, with 8.6% and a huge share of 83.4%, contributing 74.1% to the overall inflation of Guimaras, followed by Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 12.7% inflation, chipping in 8.5% to the inflation trend and contributing 10.8% to the overall inflation in February 2023,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Table 1. Top 3 major sources and contributors to Guimaras inflation rate in February 2024

The 12.7% inflation in Restaurants and Accommodation Services, was mainly driven by the fast-moving retail prices of Restaurants, café and the like - with full service recording a 12.9% inflation, while the - 1.3% inflation in Transport pushed by a price hike on Gasoline with -7.0% inflation.

“In terms of contributions to February inflation, Food, and Non-Alcoholic Beverages still topped the rank with a cut of 74.1 percent, followed by Restaurant and Accommodation Services showing a portion of 10.8% and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 9.8% inflation and noted a slash of 5.9%,” Losare said.

The price statistics results also showed that among the 13 commodity groups, four of which managed to slow down their February 2024 inflation, namely: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 9.8% from 14.9%; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels at 0.3% from 0.9%; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance at 4.4% from 5.2%; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services at 2.6% from 2.8% in January 2024. See Table 2.

Likewise, seven of 13 commodity groups posted uptrend inflation in February 2024, to wit: Food and NonAlcoholic Beverages at 8.6% from 6.0% in January 2024; Clothing and Footwear at 2.2% from 2.0%; Health at 9.8% from 9.1%; Transport at -1.3% from -2.4%; Information and Communication at -0.4% from -0.7%; Recreation, Sport, and Culture at 9.7% from 7.0%; and Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 12.7% from 10.0%, while two commodities showed a steady price index (Education Services; and Financial Services). See Table 2.

“Inflation Rate is the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) derived by computing the indices relative to the same period in the previous year or month, and currently, Guimaras Province posted a 132.5 CPI, this indicates that a typical Guimarasnon household, needs 1,325.00 pesos in February 2024 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1000 pesos in 2018, this is 1.5 and 7.4 percent higher than the 131.0 CPI in January 2024 and 125.1 CPI in February 2023, respectively," Losare clarified.

“The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in Guimaras at 0.75 in February 2024 indicates that the one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.75 centavos, representing a 0.01-percentage point depreciation from the PPP value of 0.76 centavos recorded in January 2024 and a drop of 0.05 percentage points from 0.80 PPP in February 2023,” Losare added.