09 January 2024 – Guimaras. The Province of Guimaras posted the slowest inflation for low-income households among the five (5) Provinces and two (2) Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs) of Western Visayas in 2023, based on the latest price statistics released by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA).

Figure 1: Inflation Rates in Western Visayas (Bottom 30% Income Households), by Province: 2023 (2018=100)

“The annual inflation for low-income households in Guimaras moved slowly due to the sluggish retail price change of Transport from an inflation rate of 11.5 in 2022 to -5.8 in 2023 with 66.1 percent share to trend. This was followed by Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels with 3.8 to 2.1 percent inflation and Education Services with 10.4 to 3.9 percent inflation sharing 14.9, and 7.2 percent, respectively,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare further explained that in terms of contributions to the bottom 30% income inflation in 2023, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, with 7.6 percent inflation topped the rank with 77.8 percent splits followed by Alcoholic Beverages and tobacco with 12.0 percent inflation, and Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 12.1 percent inflation posting a significant cut of 7.6 and 7.1 percent, respectively,” Losare said.

The data also showed that among the thirteen commodities, Food, and Non-Alcoholic Beverages were the main driver of the 2023 inflation trend for low-income households in Western Visayas except for the Province of Antique and Guimaras.

Table 1. Major contributors to the inflation rate for the bottom 30% income HHs in Western Visayas: : December 2023

“Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; and Transport were the main source of 2023 inflation trend for bottom 30 percent income households in Antique and Guimaras, respectively”, Losare said.

Losare also highlighted that the major contributor to the 2023 inflation for low-income households in all the provinces including the 2 HUCs of Region VI was the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages.

Likewise, the data revealed that inflation rates for the bottom 30 percent income household in Western Visayas posted an erratic trend in 5 consecutive years (2019- 2023) except for Aklan and Iloilo (province) and Bacolod City (HUC) with an increasing annual price movement.

Losare further expounded that the 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.

“Currently, the bottom 30% income HHs in Guimaras posted a 125.8 CPI, 0.4 higher than the 2023 CPI of Western Visayas at. 125.4. This indicates that a typical low-income Guimarasnon household needs 1,258 pesos in 2023 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1,000.00 pesos in 2018," Losare said.

Losare also highlighted that based on the relative poverty concept, households whose per capita income falls below the bottom 30 percent of the cumulative per capita distribution belong to the lowincome group

“The inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent income households, who are the most vulnerable to economic and social difficulties, was computed to monitor their welfare,” Losare said.