Eastern Visayas welcomes 2018 with 4.5% inflation rate

By PSA-8
February 13, 2018

TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas welcomed 2018 with a 4.5 percent Inflation Rate (IR). This January 2018 IR was 0.5 percentage point faster compared with its 4.0 percent IR a month ago and 1.7 percentage points faster than the recorded 2.8 percent IR in the same period last year. The regional inflation rate was 0.5 percentage point faster than the 4.0 percent national average.

Three provinces in the region – Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Biliran posted faster inflation rates in January 2018 compared with their figures in December 2017. On the other hand, Southern Leyte and Leyte registered decreases, while Samar had sustained its inflation rate from December 2017. Northern Samar registered the highest IR at 7.3 percent, while Southern Leyte posted the lowest IR at 1.5 percent (Table 1).

By major commodity groups, Transport, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, and Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House exhibited higher annual growths from December 2017 to January 2018.

On the other hand, annual price changes in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, and Health slowed down from December 2017 to January 2018. The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s rates.

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of the region was recorded at P0.61 in January 2018. This is weaker compared with the P0.62 PPP registered in the previous month. This PPP implies that goods and services worth 100 pesos in January 2018 only costs 61 pesos in 2006.

Northern Samar, Biliran and Eastern Samar registered decreases in PPP compared with their figures in December 2017. The rest of the provinces had sustained its PPP. Biliran recorded the strongest PPP at P0.65, followed by Northern Samar and Leyte at P0.62 and P0.61, respectively. Eastern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte, meanwhile, posted the weakest PPP at P0.60 (Table 1).