KALIBO – Aklan’s inflation rate picked up by 7.2 percent in August from 1.9 percent a year ago, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The rapid growth comes as the alcoholic beverages and tobacco index hits 23.8 percent, and transport at 11.4 percent.
This is further pushed by higher annual mark-ups of other commodity groups such: food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.9 percent); recreation and culture (8.3 percent); restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (6.9 percent); furnishings, equipment and house maintenance (5.4 percent); clothing and footwear (5.0 percent); health (3.4 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (2.5 percent); communication (1.0 percent).
Only education showed a slower price movement at -21.1 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices inched up by 1.8 percent, an increase over the previous month with 0.5 percent.
Five commodity groups exhibited higher increment comprising of recreation and culture (4.2 percent); food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.5 percent); transport (1.6 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.2 percent); and restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services (0.1 percent).
The rest of commodity groups retained its previous month’s rates.
The increase in price index across heavily-weighted food items was pushed by increments in rice (9.8 percent), bread and cereals (7.6 percent), fish (5.1 percent), sugar, jam and related products (3.1 percent), vegetables (2.2 percent), fruit (2.0 percent), oils and fats (0.1 percent), flour and cereal preparations (0.1 percent), and milk, cheese and eggs (0.1 percent).
No price movement were observed in corn, non-alcoholic beverages, and tobacco.
As a result of price increase, the purchasing power of peso in Aklan in August was pegged at P0.85, which means that one peso (P1.00) in August 2012 is worth 85 centavos (P0.85) in August 2018./PN
