ILOILO City – Western Visayas’ headline or overall inflation dropped in May this year.
It continued the downtrend to 7.1 percent from 8.2 percent in April, 9.1 percent in March, and 10.8 in February, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
According to the PSA, the deceleration was primarily brought about by the annual decline in the index of transport at 0.5 percent, from 5.7 percent.
This was followed by housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 6.8 percent in May from 8.6 percent in the previous month.
The third top contributor was the heavily-weighted index of food and non-alcoholic beverages with slower inflation of 8.7 percent inflation rate from 9.0 percent in April.
Lower annual growth was also noted in the indices of restaurants and accommodation services, 12.4 percent; clothing and footwear, 4.2 percent; and information and communication, 0.3 percent while higher inflation rates were observed in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 13.0 percent; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 9.8 percent; health, 2.9 percent; and recreation, sport and culture, 5.4 percent.
Furthermore, the indices of education services (0.4 percent), financial services (0.0 percent) and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services (7.2 percent) retained their previous month’s inflation rates.
On the other hand, the top three commodity groups contributing to the region’s headline inflation rate of 7.1 percent were food and non-alcoholic beverages with 51.5 percent share or 3.7 percentage points; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 17.7 percent share or 1.3 percentage points; and restaurants and accommodation services with 10.7 percent share or 0.8 percentage points.
The region’s food inflation, in particular, went down to 8.8 percent in May from 9.2 percent in April.
Among the main drivers to this downtrend last month was the lower year-on-year growth in the index of fish and other seafood at 6.7 percent from 10.3 percent in April, followed by sugar, confectionery and desserts at 35.3 percent from 38.4 percent in April; and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, with 6.0 percent from 6.4 percent inflation in the previous month.
Meantime, lower inflation rates during the month were also noted in the indices of the food items such as vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, 12.4 percent; oils and fats, 19.7 percent; and ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified, 8.7 percent.
However, higher inflation rates were noted in the food groups which include cereals and cereal products, 6.7 percent; milk, other dairy products and eggs, 11.8 percent; and fruits and nuts, 9.8 percent.
Data further showed that food had a share of 48.1 percent or 3.4 percentage points to the region’s May headline inflation.
Among the food groups, top contributors to food inflation during the month were cereals and cereal products with 28.6 percent share or 2.5 percentage points; fish and other seafood with 13.8 percent share or 1.2 percentage points; and sugar confectionery and desserts with 12.3 percent share or 1.1 percentage points.
Meanwhile, five of the six provinces in the region recorded continued downward trend in inflation rates in May.
Antique province retained its previous month’s inflation rate of 6.2 percent.
Among the provinces, Negros Occidental had the highest monthly inflation rate of 8.3 percent, while Guimaras had the lowest at 4.7 percent.
As to the highly urbanized cities in the region, Iloilo City inflation was noted at 9.5 percent from 11.3 percent in April.
Bacolod City recorded 7.5 percent inflation from 8.7 percent in the previous month./PN
