The 3.8 percent inflation rate of Western Visayasin January, which slightly increased from 3.7 percent in December, was driven by the higher increment in alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and transport indices, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported today, February 5.
The overall inflation in the region was primarily pushed up by the higher prices in alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 18.8 percent during the month, from 14.8 percent in December 2020.
Also contributing to the uptrend were the higher increases in the indices of transport at 14.1 percent, health at 4.6 percent, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services at 3.2 percent each, and food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.9 percent.
The rest of the commodity groups have retained their annual rates in the previous month, except for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, which decreased further by -0.3 percent during the month.
The national headline, meanwhile, has significantly increased from 3.5 percent in December 2020 to 4.2 percent in January, the PSA said.
The acceleration of the overall inflation was attributed to the higher annual increment of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.2 percent, transport at 8.6 percent, and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services at 3 percent.
Among the regions, Cagayan Valley remained with the highest inflation in January at 8 percent from 6.6 percent, followed by Bicol with 7.4 percent, and CALABARZON with 5.6 percent, while Zamboanga Peninsula has the lowest inflation with .2 percent.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in a statement, said the higher inflation outturn was due mainly to faster price increases of selected key food items.
Inflation for meat remained elevated as the African swine fever outbreak continued to adversely affect domestic supply.
The elevated inflation figure in January is consistent with the BSP’s prevailing assessment of a transitory uptick in inflation in the first half of 2021, largely reflecting ongoing supply-side pressures as well as positive base effects, the statement said.*