GUIMARAS – Low-income families in this province spent more on food and non-alcoholic beverages contributing 80.8% to the inflation trend or 5.2 percentage points to the 6.4% inflation for all items, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The data showed that food inflation for the bottom 30% of income households slowed down to 9.0 percent in March 2023 from 10.5 percent in the previous month.
“The figure is still higher by 3.9 percentage points than the March 2022 inflation rate of 5.1 percent,” Losare explained.
Inflation on non-alcoholic beverages moved faster to 2.3% in March 2023 from the 1.9% registered in February 2023. However, the figure is still slower than the 3.9 percent inflation in March 2022.
For the past 13 months, the highest food inflation was recorded at 10.7% in August 2022, while for non-alcoholic beverages, 6.2% in October 2022.
Losare also elaborated that food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 80.8% to the overall inflation of the bottom 30% of income households in Guimaras in March 2023, contributing 5.2 percentage points to the 6.4% inflation for all items of the income group in the province.
“The major contributors to the slowing down on food inflation are vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses contributed 23.0% to the inflation trend, translating to 2.1 percentage points share to the 9.0% food inflation; fish and other seafood shared 17.6% or 1.6 percentage points to the food inflation; and sugar, confectionery, and desserts with 14.3% share or 1.3 percentage points to the 9.0% food inflation of the income group in March 2023,” said Losare.
Nine out of 13 food commodity groups managed to slow down their annual rate of change in the prices in March 2023 compared to the annual rate of change a month ago, such as; Cereals and Cereal Products (3.1% from 4.3%); Cereals (2.7% from 4.7%); Rice (2.6% from 4.5%); Corn (12.1% from 19.5%); Meat and Other Parts of Slaughtered Land Animals (7.3% from 8.5%); Milk, Other Dairy Products, and Eggs (12.5% from 13.1%); Fruits and Nuts (9.9% from 15.8%); Vegetables, Tubers, Cooking Bananas, and Pulses (29.1% from 42.1%); and Sugar, Confectionery, and Desserts (54.9% from 56.0%)
Meanwhile, four commodity groups exhibited a higher year-on-year rate of price changes during the month, these were Flour, Bread and Other Bakery Products, Pasta Products, and Other Cereals, (4.6% from 2.8%); Fish and Other Seafood (6.5% from 5.3%); Oils and Fats (38.7% from 36.3%); and Ready-Made Food and Other Food Products N.E.C. (0.2% from -2.3%). (PSA)/PN