ILOILO City – The inflation rate in Western Visayas increased further from 4.9 percent in April to 5.9 percent in May 2022. This marks the highest inflation since January 2019.
Inflation in May of the previous year was lower at 4.1 percent.
The average inflation rate for the first five months of the year is recorded at 4.7 percent.
The increase in the region’s inflation was influenced mainly by the higher annual increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.6 percent; transport with 14.2 percent, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 4.0 percent.
Also contributing to the uptrend in the overall inflation during the period were the higher growth in the indices of the following commodity groups compared with their inflation rates in the previous month:
a. alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 8.8 percent;
b. personal care and miscellaneous goods and services, 3.2 percent;
c. restaurants and accommodation services, 4.4 percent;
d. clothing and footwear, 2.0 percent;
e. information and communication, 1.2 percent;
f. recreation sport and culture, 3.3 percent;
On the other hand, annual growth slowed down in the index of furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance with 2.2 percent in May from 2.4 percent inflation in April.
The rest of the commodity groups either retained their previous month’s inflation rates or
had zero percent annual growths.
Food inflation in Western Visayas accelerated to 6.9 percent in May 2022, from 5.6 percent annual growth in the previous month. In May 2021, food inflation was lower at 1.2 percent.
The rise in inflation rate of food commodity group is influenced by fish and other seafood commodity group, with 6.5 percent rate in May 2022 from 4.5 percent in April 2022; vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses registered 16.1 percent inflation during the period, from 12.1 percent inflation in the previous month; and cereals and cereal products which went up to 3.9 percent growth during the period from 3.2 percent in the previous month.
The following food groups exhibited higher annual increments during the month:
a. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 11.1 percent;
b. Sugar, confectionery and desserts, 10.5 percent;
c. Fruits and nuts, 8.1 percent;
d. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 1.8 percent;
e. Oils and fats, 7.8 percent; and
f. Ready-made food and other food products n.e.c., 3.5 percent
Provinces
In comparison with their annual growth rates in April 2022, all of the six provinces in Western Visayas registered acceleration in inflation rates in May 2022.
Negros Occidental registered the highest inflation of 8.2 percent, while Iloilo had the lowest at 4.0 percent. Of the two highly urbanized cities in the region, Iloilo City recorded 6.6 percent growth while Bacolod City had 4.8 percent inflation, both increases from the similar 4.6 inflation in April 2022. (PSA/PN)
