Guimaras: The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a stable inflation in Guimaras in December last year, maintaining its -1.3 percent rate from the preceding month. Guimaras is the only province in Western Visayas that registered a negative inflation in December.
According to Philippines News Agency, in a virtual press conference on Thursday, PSA Guimaras Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida Losare said the province experienced negative inflation for six months last year. "This resulted in a year-to-date average inflation of 0.1 percent in 2025, indicating generally subdued price movements in the province compared with Western Visayas at 1.5 percent and the national average at 1.7 percent," Losare said.
The major contributors to the unchanged inflation rate were food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group, which posted a -4.5 percent rate; and the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels with -1.0 percent inflation. "Under food and non-alcoholic beverages, the faster price movement in rice was identified as the major contributor to the group's overall negative inflation. The slowdown in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels was primarily attributed to lower electricity rates," Losare said.
Among the major commodity groups, food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; and health also registered the highest inflation rate at -4.5 percent rate from 4.9 percent, -1.9 percent from 1.9 percent, and 4 percent from 3.7 percent, respectively. In contrast, five commodity groups recorded slower inflation rates in December 2025.
"These were alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which declined to 6.3 percent from 8.0 percent; clothing and footwear eased to 0.9 percent from 3.0 percent; transport decelerated to 0.8 percent from 4.7 percent; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services slowed to 0.9 percent from 1.3 percent," Losare said.
Five other commodities retained their November inflation rate, including information and communication: 0.0 percent; recreation, sport, and culture, 0.5 percent; education services, 0.8 percent; restaurants and accommodation services, 10.4 percent; and financial services, 0.0 percent. Aklan maintained its November inflation rate of 0.9 percent; Antique accelerated to 1.2 percent from -0.2 percent; Capiz increased to 0.9 percent from 0.4 percent; Iloilo province posted the highest with 2.8 percent from 1.5 percent; and Iloilo City slowed to 1.9 percent from 2.3 percent in November.
Losare said the stable inflation rate could be due to enough supplies of commodities in Guimaras, and no longer sourced from outside of the province.
