The headline inflation of Guimaras province slowed to 4.6 percent in January 2024 against 5.5 percent a month ago and 8.0 percent in January 2023, based on the latest price statistics released by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA).

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

The downtrend in January inflation was due to the slower price change on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 6.0 percent; Restaurant and Accommodation Services with 10.0 percent; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels with 0.9 percent inflation, showing a huge share of 44.8, 25.0 and 12.6 percent, respectively.

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

The slower inflation in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages was due to the sluggish price change of food items from 7.3 percent in December 2023 to 6.3 percent in January 2024. Restaurant and Accommodation Services with 10.0 percent inflation were pulled down by the dwindling prices of Food and Beverage Serving Services from 15.2 to 10.2 percent. Moreover, the 0.9 inflation of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels was driven by decelerating retail prices of Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels from 4.8 to 3.3 percent.

In terms of contributions to January headline inflation, Food, and Non-Alcoholic Beverages still topped the rank with a cut of 65.5 percent, followed by Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco with 14.9 percent inflation and Restaurant and Accommodation Services with 13.5 percent inflation posting a significant portion of 11.4 and 10.8 percent, respectively.

The price statistics results also showed that among the 13 commodity groups, six of which posted downtrend inflation from December 2023 to January 2024 (Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance; Transport; Restaurants and Accommodation Services; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services). See table 2

Likewise, four of 13 commodity groups posted uptrend inflation from December 2023 to January 2024 (Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; Health; and Recreation, Sport, and Culture), while three commodities showed a steady movement on their price index (Information and Communication; Education Services; and Financial Services). See table 2

Table 2: Major share to the year-on-year inflation Trend for January 2024: All Income Households, Guimaras

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, and currently, Guimaras Province posted a 131.0 CPI, it indicates that a typical Guimarasnon household needs 1,310 pesos in January 2024 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1000 pesos in 2018, this is 0.6 and 5.8 percent higher than the 130.4 CPI in December 2023 and 125.2 CPI in January 2022, respectively.

Guimaras Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) 
The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in Guimaras at 0.76 in January 2024 indicates that one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.76 centavos, representing a 0.01 percentage points depreciation from the PPP value of 0.77centavo recorded in December 2023 and a drop of 0.04 percentage points from 0.80PPP in January 2023.

The data also showed that there had been an erratic movement in the PPP in the first half of 2023. From 0.80 PPP in January and February 2023, it moved upward to 0.81 PPP in March until May 2023.

Moreover, the PPP of Guimaras went back to 0.80 centavos in June and July 2023, down to 0.79 in August, which remained steady until October and continually moved downward until the last month of 2023 with 0.77 centavos. The 0.76 PPP in January 2024 was the lowest recorded for the past 13 months. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) in Guimaras: January 2023- January 2024 (in centavo) (2018=100)

Year-on-year inflation 
Rate of change in the Consumer Price Index in a specific period of the current year relative to the same period in the previous year.

Month-on-Month inflation 
Rate of change in the Consumer Price Index in a specific period of the current month relative to the previous month in the current year.

Consumer Price Index 
Indicator of the change in the average prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by an average Filipino household for their day-to-day consumption relative to a base year. It is most widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of the peso (PPP).

Relative to this, daily, weekly, and bi-monthly price surveys are conducted nationwide at the provincial offices including the District Offices of the National Capital Region (NCR) to be able to generate monthly CPI for All Income Households and CPI for the Bottom 30% Income Households. Indicators produced from price surveys are regarded as designated statistics.

The seasonally adjusted CPI provides comparisons after removing the seasonal variations that may affect the series. The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, the Laspeyre’s formula with a fixed base year period (2018) weights given by. 
 

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) 
Indicates how much the Philippine Peso is worth in each period relative to its value in a base period. It is computed by getting the reciprocal of the CPI and multiplying the result by 100 given by the equation:

Headline Inflation  
Defined as the rate of change in the weighted average prices of all goods and services in the CPI basket while Core Inflation refers to the rate of change in the CPI which excludes the following item/commodity groups: rice, corn, fruits and vegetables, and fuel items.