Eastern Visayas closes 2021 with 3.4% inflation rate

By PSA-8
January 20, 2022

TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas closed 2021 with 3.4 percent Inflation Rate (IR) in December. This IR is 0.4 percentage point lower compared with the 3.8 percent IR in November 2021. However, December 2021 IR of the region is 1.0 percentage point higher than the recorded 2.4 percent IR in the same period last year.

In comparison with the national average IR, the regional IR is lower by 0.2 percentage point than the 3.6 percent national IR in December 2021.

Among the provinces, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 4.4 percent in December 2021. Biliran’s IR came next at 4.2 percent, then Samar at 3.7 percent. The lowest IR was noted in Southern Leyte at 2.2 percent. All provinces exhibited lower IRs in December 2021 compared with their figures in November 2021. Samar recorded the biggest drop of 1.7 percentage points from its 5.4 percent IR a month ago, registering 3.7 percent IR in December 2021. The IR in Southern Leyte moved at a slower pace of 2.2 percent in December 2021, 1.2 percentage points lower than its 3.4 percent IR in November 2021. Northern Samar recorded 1.0 percentage point decrease, bringing its December 2021 IR down to 3.0 percent. Meanwhile, IR of Leyte, Biliran, and Eastern Samar all eased by 0.1 percentage point in December 2021, settling at 3.0 percent, 4.2 percent, and 4.4 percent, respectively.

In December 2021, only the commodity groups of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services registered IRs higher than their previous month’s levels by 0.3 percentage point, 0.1 percentage point, and 0.1 percentage point, respectively. All other commodity groups have either lower or retained their November IRs.

Transport commodity group posted the highest IR during the month in review at 6.7 percent, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group at 6.2 percent. All the other commodity groups have IRs lower than the IR for all items recorded at 3.4 percent.

The alcoholic beverages and tobacco commodity group registered the biggest decrease in IR with 2.8 percentage points, which settled at 2.3 percent in December 2021 from 5.1 percent in November 2021. This can be traced in the declines of IRs in both indices of tobacco and alcoholic beverages by 1.0 percentage point and 3.9 percentage points, respectively.

Slower IR was also noted in the transport commodity group, from 8.7 percent in November 2021 to 6.7 percent in December 2021. This 2.0 percentage point decrease in IR was brought about by the reduction of the double-digit IR in the operation of personal transport equipment index by 9.7 percentage points.

The IR for food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group in December 2021 slowed down to 3.3 percent from 4.0 percent in November 2021. The IR for vegetables dropped to 1.0 percent in December 2021 from 5.0 percent in November 2021, the highest decline of 4.0 percentage points. The IR for fish fell to 9.7 percent in December 2021 from its double-digit IR of 12.4 percent a month ago. Slower IRs were also exhibited in the indices of food products not elsewhere classified (2.8%); oils and fats (1.4%); sugar, jam, honey, chocolate, and confectionery (1.1%); and milk, cheese, and eggs (0.7%).

The index of rice and corn continued to register deflations but at a slower rate of 1.5 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. The index of non-alcoholic beverages retained its previous month’s IR at 0.2 percent, while bread and cereals retained its previous month’s deflation of 1.2 percent. On the other hand, meat index continued to register double-digit IR at 14.4 percent in December 2021. Prices for fruits also picked-up posting IR of 6.1 percent in during the month in review.

Compared with its November 2021 levels, IR for clothing and footwear commodity group (1.4%) declined by 0.2 percentage point in December 2021. The IR for health commodity group likewise eased by 0.1 percentage point, settling at 0.9 percent in December 2021.

On the other hand, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group’s IR increased to 6.2 percent in December 2021 from 5.9 percent in November 2021, recording a slight increase of 0.3 percentage point. This uptick in IR was brought about by the higher double-digit IR in the electricity, gas, and other fuels index posted at 17.9 percent.

The IRs for restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services commodity group and furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house commodity group both inched up by 0.1 percentage point registering 1.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, in December 2021.

Meanwhile, the commodity groups of recreation and culture; communication; and education retained their previous month’s IRs at 0.9 percent, 0.7 percent, and 0.1 percent, respectively.

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of the region remained at P0.75 in December 2021. This PPP implies that the goods and services worth P75.00 in 2012 was already worth P100.00 in December 2021.

Compared with their levels in November 2021, PPP in Biliran and Northern Samar both weakened by P0.01. The rest of the provinces retained their previous month’s PPP. Biliran and Leyte recorded the strongest PPP at P0.78, while Samar posted the weakest PPP during the reference month at P0.69.