Bacolod city: The inflation rate in the Negros Island Region (NIR) eased to 4.9 percent in June from 5.4 percent in May, remaining the lowest among all regions in the country, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Thursday.

According to Philippines News Agency, PSA-NIR Statistical Operations and Coordination Division Chief Statistical Specialist Ma. Goretti M. Novilla stated during a press conference that the June inflation rate was still higher than the 0.5 percent recorded in the same month last year. The region's average inflation rate for the first six months of 2026 stood at 3.0 percent.

"NIR remains as having the lowest inflation rate among the regions in the country for June," Novilla said. The deceleration in June inflation was mainly driven by transport, which accounted for 61.9 percent of the slowdown, followed by restaurants and accommodation services (17.0 percent) and education services (15.7 percent).

Despite the easing, the largest contributors to overall inflation remained food and non-alcoholic beverages, transport, and restaurants and accommodation services. Among individual commodities, gasoline posted the highest inflation at 36.9 percent, followed by liquefied petroleum gas at 32.5 percent, corn at 21.0 percent, restaurants and caf©s at 7.1 percent, and rice at 2.0 percent.

Higher inflation was recorded in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, information and communication, and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services. Lower inflation was noted in furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, health, and transport. Food inflation remained steady at 3.9 percent in June, unchanged from the previous month.

By area, Negros Oriental's inflation declined to 6.2 percent in June from 6.5 percent in May, while Siquijor eased to 9.5 percent from 10.0 percent. Negros Occidental recorded the biggest improvement, dropping to 3.5 percent from 4.2 percent. Bacolod City, however, posted a slight increase, rising to 7.1 percent from 7.0 percent in May.

For the bottom 30 percent income households, inflation slowed to 4.8 percent in June from 5.0 percent in the previous month. The sector's average inflation rate from January to June was 2.4 percent.