GUIMARAS – The food inflation in this island province spiked to 11.7 percent in November 2022, higher by 1.2 percentage points than the 10.5 percent in October 2022, according to the Retail Price Survey of Commodities for the Generation of Consumer Price Index of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The November 2022 inflation was also 9.1 percent faster than the 2.6 inflation in November 2021, PSA added.
“Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses commodity with an inflation rate of 45.3 percent in November shared 63.1 percent to food inflation,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.
Likewise, the 18.5 inflation of fruits and nuts; and the 9.3 annual price increment of milk, other dairy products, and eggs cut a 21.4 and 12.6 percent to the October 2022 food inflation, respectively, Losare added.
Other food items which contributed to the uptrend of the November 2022 food inflation in Guimaras were sugar, confectionery, and desserts (46.3%); and oils and fats (21.9%).
Food inflation rates for the last two months of 2021 demonstrated rising rates, starting at 2.6 percent in November and continuously rising until 5.4 percent inflation in December 2021.
“In 2022, food inflation started at a rate of 9.4 percent and suddenly contracted to 3.2 percent in February. From then, the data showed a continuous uptrend from March to August with 12.1 percent food inflation which was the highest rate recorded in 10 months,” Losare said.
The data also showed that food inflation increased in October 2022 after slowing down at a 9.2 percent in September and expanded to 11.7 percent in November 2022.
“The average food price changes for the first eleven months of the current year stood at 8.6 percent, the highest average food inflation since 2019, while the slowest average food inflation was seen in 2021 at -0.3%,” Losare said.
The highest food inflation rate in 2022 was at 12.1% recorded in August, while the highest rate in 2019, was at 8.6% in the first three months, 5.1 percent in April 2020, and 5.4 percent in December 2021. (PSA/PN)
