GUIMARAS – The inflation rate here for November 2021 climbed to 4.2 percent, quicker by 0.1 percentage points from the November 2020 rate of 4.1 percent pushed up by the faster price movements of six commodity group items.
The 4.2 percent is 0.6 percentage points higher than the 3.6 percent monthly rate of change recorded a month ago, according to the Retail Prices Survey (RPS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
This meant that the costs of goods purchased in November of this year were 4.2 percent faster than the prices of products purchased in November 2020 and in October 2021.
The faster inflation rates in November 2021 were due to the increased prices on food and non-alcoholic beverages with 4.9%; alcoholic beverages and tobacco (15.6%); education (12.5%); and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (6.0%), communication, and recreation and culture, with (0.1%) each.
The recorded increment in the November inflation, however, was tempered by the slower price movements on clothing, and footwear commodity groups which dropped by 3.0 percentage points, from 4.7 inflation in November 2020 to 1.7 percent in the same month in 2021, said Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida Losare.
Furthermore, the slower inflation on actual rentals for Housing which dropped to 1.3 percent, and water supply and miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling which goes down to 0.0%, pushed the commodity of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rate to step down at 0.6 percent in November 2021 form the 4.6 percent in November 2020.
The furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house commodity group also decreased by 0.1 percentage points from 3.8 percent in November 2020 to 3.7 percent in November 2021.
Meanwhile, the health commodity group also recorded a decrease of 4.4 percentage points from 5.7 percent in November 2020 to 1.3% in November 2021, mainly pushed by the slower price index of Out-patient Services.
Among the commodity groups, only the Transport group remained steady at 12.7 percent in November 2021.
The commodities are monitored by the PSA during the Retail Prices Survey (RPS) for November 2021 with an index of 130.9, which means that an average Guimarasnon household needs PHP30.9 more in November 2021 to buy a basket of goods worth P100 in 2012.
Looking at the November year-on-year inflation rate throughout the nine consecutive years, 2018 had the fastest rate, at 5.4%, and November 2015 had the slowest rate of -0.1%. The November inflation rates from 2013 until 2021 moved at a random and unpredictable pattern.
The high price changes were in the years: 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Inflation rates moved erratically: from a slump of -1.0% in 2015, Guimaras’ inflation climbed to 4.8% in 2016, suddenly it went down to 2.2%, and finally soared reaching a peak of 5.4% or an increment of 3.2 percentage points and was managed to decrease by 3.3 percentage points in 2019, recording a rate of 2.1%, from then, the rate of price change gradually increased by 2.0 percentage points in 2020 which recorded a 4.1% inflation until a slight increment was seen again at 4.2% in November 2021./PN
