ILOILO City – Western Visayas inflation continues to increase.
For November, the region’s inflation accelerated further to 9.6 percent from 8.0 percent in October – the region’s highest recorded inflation since January 2009, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Region 6.
PSA-6 officer-in-charge, Chief Statistical Specialist Nelida C. Amolar, said the region’s inflation is higher than the country’s average inflation at 8 percent.
The region’s average inflation from January to October 2022 stood at 6.3 percent.
PSA-6 data also showed that Iloilo City registered the highest inflation among the areas in the region for November at 12.4 percent. It accelerated from 11.3 percent in the previous month.
Likewise, Bacolod City inflation rose to 8.7 percent during the period from 5.7 percent in October.
Amolar explained that the continued acceleration of inflation in November was mainly due to the higher year-on-year growth rate in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 10.1 percent from 8.9 percent in October.
This was followed by housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels whose index increased to 11.7 percent from 9.2 percent in October.
Amolar added that also contributing to the uptrend is the higher annual increment in the index of restaurants and accommodation services at 9.9 percent from 7.0 percent in October.
Additionally, relative to their annual rates in October, annual increases in November were also higher in the indices of the commodity groups such as transport, 14.3 percent; personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 5.8 percent; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 7.0 percent; clothing and footwear, 3.3 percent; information and communication, 2.6 percent; alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 11.5 percent; and recreation, sport and culture, 4.4 percent.
Furthermore, slower year-on-year increase was noted in the index of health at 1.4 percent.
On the other hand, education services and financial services commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rates.
Inflation for food in Western Visayas accelerated to 10.4 percent in November from 9.1 percent in the previous month. Food inflation in November 2021 was noted at 3.4 percent.
The uptrend in food inflation was influenced mainly by higher annual growth in the food
sub-groups of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses at 15.7 percent; fruits and nuts at 10.6 percent; and sugar, confectionery and desserts, 41.6 percent. Also, faster annual increments were noted in the following food groups: cereals and cereal products, 7.2 percent; milk, other dairy products and eggs, 8.6 percent; ready-made food and other products not elsewhere classified, 6.9 percent; oils and fats, 17.1 percent; and fish and other seafood, 8.0 percent.
On the other hand, slower annual growth was observed in meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals food group at 12.1 percent in November from 15.3 percent in October. (With reports from PSA-6)/PN
