CEBU CITY, Philippines — The inflation rate in Cebu Province for April 2024 has decelerated to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent in March, according to the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Cebu on Thursday, May 16.
PSA Cebu’s Chief Statistical Specialist Melchor Bautista said the headline inflation slowed down in April 2024 mainly due to a faster year-on-year decrease in the heavily weighted transport commodity group, which dropped to -7.7 percent from a 0.7 percent annual increase in March 2024.
The second driver of deceleration was the health commodity group which covers medicines. It also saw a decrease in its annual growth rate, dropping to 4.8 percent in April 2024 from 5.6 percent in the previous month.
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Additionally, the slower annual increase of personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services at 3.1 percent in April 2024 from 3.2 percent in March 2024 also contributed to the deceleration of April’s inflation rate.
Meanwhile, the top three commodity groups that contributed to April’s inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages with 1,369.5 percent share or 2.7 percentage points; restaurants and accommodation services with 377.7 percent share or 0.8 percentage point; and alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 285.2 or 0.6 percentage point.
There are also two commodity groups that showed an increase in inflation rate and this is food and non-alcoholic beverages to 2.4 percent from 1.1 percent in March; and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels to -5.0 percent from -5.6 percent in March.
Inflation rate in tri-cities
Moreover, among the highly urbanized cities in Cebu, the inflation rate in Mandaue City continued to soar, from 7.5 percent in March to 7.6 percent in April.
The commodity groups that contributed to Mandaue City’s April inflation were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 58.0 percent share or 4.4 percentage point; food and non-alcoholic beverages with 26.8 percent share or 2.0 percentage points; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services with 5.1 percent share or 0.4 percentage point.
The main drivers of the upward trend of Mandaue’s inflation was housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (17.2 percent from 16.6 percent); transport (2.7 percent from 2.6 percent); and clothing and footwear (0.4 percent from 0.2 percent).
In Cebu City, the inflation rate for April decreased to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent in March. And the main drivers to the downward trend were the commodities food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.2 percent from 6.6 percent), transport (4.3 percent from 4.9 percent), and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services (6.0 percent from 6.3 percent).
Meanwhile, Lapu-Lapu City’s inflation rate also decreased to 5.5 percent in April from 5.6 in March.
The primary drivers to the city’s downward trend of inflation were mainly the transport commodity (2.6 percent from 3.3 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.7 percent from 6.8 percent), and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services (8.4 percent from 8.9 percent).
In April 2024, Central Visayas maintained its headline inflation rate from the previous month at 3.2 percent. For the period from January to April 2024, the average inflation rate in the region was recorded at 2.9 percent.
Additionally, in April 2024, the Philippines saw its total inflation rate rise to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent in March 2024. Consequently, the average inflation rate for the country from January to April 2024 stands at 3.4 percent.