Guimaras’ inflation balloons to 4.9%

J ORDAN, Guimaras – Guimaras’ headline inflation rate for March 2022 increased to 4.9 percent, higher by 1.2 percentage points than the March 2021 rate, attributed to faster price movements on seven commodity group items, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Survey on Retail Prices on Commodities.

“This simply means that the cost of goods purchased in March of this year was 1.2 percent higher than the prices of products purchased in March 2021 and January 2022,” said Provincial Statistics Officer

Nelida Losare.

Losare also explained that the increase in the overall inflation was mainly due to the faster annual price movements of the following commodity group items:

* Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (4.7%) from 3.7% a year ago

* Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels (4.2%) from 1.7% * Health (4.5%) from 0.4% * I n f o r m a t i o n a n d Communication (-0.4%) from -1.3%

* Recreation, Sport and Culture (9.2%) from 8.1% * Education Service (14.8%) * Financial Services (63.6%) from 6.3%

On the other hand, in the indices of the following, annual price changes were slower:

* Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (7.3%) from 16.6% in March 2021

* Clothing and Footwear (2.3%) from 4.3%

* Furnishing, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance (2.7%) from 9.1%

* Transport (10.4%) from 35.7%

* R e s t a u r a n t s a n d

Accommodation Services (1.2%) from 13.2%

* Pe r s o n a l C a re , a n d Miscellaneous Goods and Services (2.6%) from 7.4%

Only two commodity groups have maintained their levels from a month ago, namely: * Education Service (14.8%) * Financial Services (63.6%) A Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 116.6 for March 2022 means that an average Guimarasnon will need P16.6 more in March 2022 to buy the same basket of goods that cost P100 pesos in 2018, Losare said.