Eastern Visayas’ inflation rate hits record high in June at 6.3 percent

By PSA-8
July 18, 2018

TACLOBAN CITY – The annual Inflation Rate (IR) of Eastern Visayas rose to a record high of 6.3% in June, posting the highest since January 2018. This IR was 0.5 percentage point higher compared with the 5.8% IR a month ago, and 3.0 percentage points higher than the recorded 3.3% IR in the same period last year. The regional inflation rate was 1.1 percentage points higher than the 5.2% national average in June.

All provinces in the region registered higher inflation rates in June compared with their figures in the previous month, except for Biliran, the only province that has registered a decrease of 1.1 percentage points, from 6.0% in May to 4.9% in June. Northern Samar posted the highest increase of 2.3 percentage points, from 5.5% in May to 7.8% in June. The rest of the provinces recorded increases ranging from 0.2 percentage point to 0.9 percentage point. Northern Samar had the highest IR at 7.8%, while Southern Leyte posted the lowest at 1.4 percent (Table 1).

By major commodity groups, Transport recorded the highest increase of a hefty 6.0 percentage points, from 2.0% in May to 8.0% in June. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages followed at 0.6 percentage point.

Annual price changes in Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco decreased by 2.1 percentage points, but still recorded a double digit inflation rate of 22.0%, the highest among all commodities. Clothing and Footwear and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels likewise shed off by 0.4 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point, settling at 0.9% and 5.6%, respectively.

Communication recorded zero inflation rate during the month in review, while Recreation and Culture, Education, and Restaurants and Miscellaneous Goods and Services retained their previous month’s rates of 0.9%, 3.5%, and 1.6%, respectively.

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of the region remained at P 0.81 in June 2018. This PPP implies that goods and services worth 100 pesos in June 2018 only costs 81 pesos in 2012.

Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Southern Leyte registered a 0.01 centavo decrease in the PPP compared with their figures in May. Whereas, Biliran recorded a 0.01 centavo increase in PPP, while the rest of the provinces had sustained their PPP from last month. Leyte recorded the strongest PPP at P0.84. Southern Leyte ranked second at P0.83, followed by Biliran at P0.82 and Eastern Samar at P0.79. Northern Samar and Samar, meanwhile, posted the weakest PPP at P0.76 (Table 1).