1. Guimaras Headline Inflation 

The Guimaras’ headline inflation or overall inflation slowed to 6.2 percent in June 2024 from 7.0 percent in May 2024, bringing the provincial average inflation from January to June 2024 to 6.3 percent. 

Inflation rate for June 2024 was higher by 2.6 percentage points when compared to the 3.6 percent inflation in June 2023. (Figure 1, and Table 1) 

1.1 Main Drivers to the Downward Trend of the Headline Inflation 

The downtrend in the overall inflation in June 2024 was primarily influenced by the slower year-onyear price change in the heavily weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 9.4 percent during the month, from 11.1 percent in May 2024. The slower annual growth rate of the Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance index at 2.7 percent in June 2024 from 3.8 percent in the previous month also contributed to the sluggish trend of the overall inflation. 

Likewise, slower inflation rate was also noted in Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 5.4 percent in June from 5.9 percent in May 2024.

In contrast, only the commodity groups of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels and Transport showed faster inflation rate during the month with 1.7 and 3.8 percent from 1.1 and 3.6 percent in May 2024.

Moreover, education services, Restaurants and Accommodation Service, and Financial Services retained their previous month’s annual rates. (Tables 2)

1.2 Main Contributors to the Headline Inflation

The top three commodity groups contributing to the May 2024 overall inflation were the following:

a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 76.7 percent share or 4.76 percentage points;

b. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 4.4 percent share or 0.27 percentage point; and 

c. Transport with 4.3 percent share or 0.27 percentage point

2. Guimaras Core 

Inflation Core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, increased at 3.5 percent in June 2024 from 3.8 percent in the previous month. In June 2023, core inflation was higher at 5.3 percent. (Table 1)

3. Headline Inflation per province in Region VI

Guimaras an Aklan posted the highest headline inflation among the six provinces in Western Visayas (WV) with 6.2 percent each, followed closely by Antique with 5.8 percent. 

Negros Occidental reported the lowest headline inflation in WV, recording 4.5 percent, tailed by Capiz, and Iloilo with 4.7, and 5.0 percent, respectively. 

In terms of headline inflation trend from May to June 2024, the province with the highest increment was Iloilo with 3.70 percentage points growth from 1.3 to 5.0 percent inflation, followed by Aklan with a lump of 1.70 percentage points from 4.5 to 6.2 percent inflation.

Guimaras showed a -0.80 percentage points difference from 7.0 inflation in May to 6.2 inflation in June, followed by Antique with 0.10 percentage points changes from 5.7 to 5.8 inflation, and Capiz including Negros Occidental with 0.30 percentage points each variation from 4.4 to 4.7 and 4.2 to 4.5 inflation, respectively.

Meanwhile, all provinces posted an erratic movement on their headline inflation rate from January to June 2024. (Figure 2.)

4. Guimaras Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

The average purchasing power of the peso (PPP) in Guimaras in June 2024 was at 0.76, the same level with the last month’s PPP. This denotes that one peso in 2024 is now valued at 0.76 centavos.

The data also showed that there have been erratic movements in the past 13 months. From 0.80 PPP in June 2023, it gradually slackened until 0.77 PPP in December 2023. 

The PPP continued to depreciate in January until March 2024 with 0.75 centavos, but rise up a little bit to percentage points 0.76 during April until June. (Figure 2)

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Inflation Rate 

Rate of change in the Consumer Price Index. Its formula is given by:

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.