Eastern Visayas recorded a 3.8 percent inflation rate in January 2024, lower than the 4.3 percent recorded the previous month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday. The downtrend inflation rate was mainly due to the lower inflation on food and non-alcoholic beverages at 7.3 percent last month from 8.3 percent in December 2023. Also contributing to the decrease was the lower inflation rate in transport, restaurants and accommodation, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, personal care, miscellaneous goods and services, household equipment, health, and recreation. 'The deceleration of the inflation rate for food in January 2024 was primarily brought about by the annual price decline in the index of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses at 14.5 percent during the month from 0.7 percent in December 2023,' PSA Eastern Visayas Regional Director Wilma Perante said in a press briefing. Samar province posted the highest inflation rate in January at 5.6 percent, but was low er than the 6.6 percent recorded a month earlier. Biliran came next at 4.9 percent, up from the 4 percent recorded in December. Northern Samar registered a 4 percent inflation, higher than the 3.3 percent logged the previous month. Although Eastern Samar province recorded the fourth highest inflation at 3.5 percent, it is way lower than the 5.2 percent in December. Leyte's inflation rate also dropped to 3.3 percent in January from 4.1 percent in December. Southern Leyte posted the lowest inflation at 2.6 percent, although slightly higher than the 2.4 percent recorded a month earlier. The inflation rate is the annual rate of change or the year-on-year changes in the consumer price index. It indicates how fast or slow the price changes over two time periods. Contrary to common knowledge, Perante said low inflation does not necessarily mean that prices of commodities are decreasing; instead, it means that prices continue to increase but at a slower rate. The PSA came up with the data by establishing base line information for the prices of the items in the base year 2018 and monitoring their prices regularly. Data collection for the consumer price index is done by the PSA provincial twice monthly, except for petroleum products, which they monitor every Friday. Source: Philippines News Agency
