GUIMARAS – The inflation rate in this island province softened to 6.8% in April this year from the previous month’s rate, bringing the provincial average inflation from January to April to 6.1%, the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday.
“The downtrend in the overall inflation in April 2024 was primarily influenced by the slower year-on-year decrease in the heavily weighted restaurants and accommodation services at 3.1% during the month, from 13.7% in March which was pushed by the sluggish price movement on restaurants, cafes, and similar establishments, whether providing full service or service alone with an inflation of 2.9% in April 2024,” said Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare.
She added the slower annual growth rate of the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index at 0.6% in April from 1.5% in March due to the dwindling price on electricity with 4.1%, also contributed to the downtrend of the overall inflation.
A slower inflation rate was also noted in alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 9.3% during the month from 9.7% in March driven by the falling price of tobacco with 9.7% inflation.
In contrast, commodity groups that registered faster inflation rates during the month were food and non-alcoholic beverages, 10.9% from 10.3%; clothing and footwear, 2.1% from 2.0%; transport, 2.5% from 0.8%; information and communication, -0.1% from -0.4%; recreation, sport and culture, 11.0% from 9.7%; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.7% from 2.6%.
Meanwhile, the top three commodity groups with major contributions to the April 2024 overall inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages, with 81.3% share or 5.53 percentage points; alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 4.8% share or 0.33 percentage points; and health with 3.4% share or 0.23 percentage points.
Losare also highlighted that core inflation, which excludes selected food and energy items, slowed down to 3.3% in April from 3.5% in the previous month. In April 2023, core inflation was higher at 6.2%.
“Inflation rate is the rate of change in the CPI derived by computing the indices relative to the same period in the previous year or month. Currently, Guimaras Province posted a 131.7 CPI, indicating that a typical Guimarasnon household needs P1,317 in April 2024 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth P1,000 in 2018 – 1.3% lower than the 133.0 CPI in March 2024 and 8.0% higher than the 123.3 CPI in April 2023,” Losare clarified.
She added: “The purchasing power of the peso (PPP) in Guimaras at 0.76 in April 2024 indicates that the one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.76 centavos, recording a slow increment 0.01% from the 0.75 PPP in April 2024 and devaluation 0.05% from 0.81 PPP April 2023.”/PN
