ILOILO City – Western Visayas’ regional inflation exhibited continued acceleration to 8.0 percent in October 2022 from 7.5 percent in September 2022.
Average inflation from January to October 2022 was recorded at 5.9 percent.
Inflation in October of the previous year was lower at 4.1 percent.
The uptrend in the region’s October 2022 inflation was primarily due to the higher annual increment recorded in the index for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels
at 9.2 percent, from 5.3 percent in September 2022.
This was followed by furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance whose index increased to 5.1 percent from 4.5 percent in September 2022.
Next is personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services with 4.2 percent growth from 4.1 percent in the previous month.
On the other hand, annual growth slowed down during October 2022 in the indices of the following commodity groups:
a. food and non-alcoholic beverages, 8.9 percent;
b. alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 10.5 percent;
c. clothing and footwear, 2.0 percent;
d. health, 1.5 percent;
e. transport, 13.2 percent;
f. information and communication, 1.1 percent;
g. recreation, sport and culture, 3.1 percent;
h. education services, 0.4 percent and;
i. restaurants and accommodation services, 7.0 percent.
Financial services commodity group retained its previous month’s inflation rate of zero percent annual growth.
FOOD INFLATION
Inflation for food in Western Visayas decreased to 9.1 percent in October 2022, from 9.5 percent.
The downtrend in food inflation was influenced mainly by lower annual growth in the food
sub-groups of cereals and cereal products at 6.9 percent; milk, other dairy products and eggs at 7.6 percent; fruits and nuts, 6.6 percent; vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, 6.2 percent.
On the other hand, faster annual growth rates were observed in the other food groups:
a. meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 15.3 percent;
b. fish and other seafood, 7.9 percent;
c. oils and fats, 14.2 percent;
d. sugar, confectionery and desserts, 36.2 percent and;
e. ready-made food and other food products n.e.c., 5.2 percent.
PROVINCES
Four of the six provinces in Western Visayas, namely, Aklan, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo registered uptrend in inflation rates in October 2022 compared with the previous month.
The other provinces, on the other hand had lower monthly inflation during the period compared with September 2022. Moreover, Antique recorded the highest monthly inflation of 9.4 percent, while Negros Occidental had the lowest at 6.9 percent.
Among the highly urbanized cities in the region, Iloilo City showed an acceleration to 11.3 percent inflation in October from 7.3 percent in the previous month, while Bacolod City inflation decreased to 5.7 percent during the period from 6.8 percent in September 2022./PN
