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CEBU CITY, Philippines — After experiencing a steady inflation rate in April, Central Visayas observed a movement by up to 0.8 percent for the May 2024 inflation rate.
On Thursday, June 13, Engineer Felixberto Sato Jr., supervising statistical specialist of the Philippine Statistics Authority in Central Visayas (PSA-7), reported that the inflation rate in May 2024 had increased to 4.0 percent from the 3.2 percent in April.
Sato said that the main contributors to the regional inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages with 60.1 percent share; restaurants and accommodation services with 9.4 percent; and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 9.3 percent share.
Food inflation
Moreover, the region also observed an increase in food inflation in May which rose to 6.7 percent from 5.3 percent in April.
According to the PSA-7, the main drivers of food inflation were brought about by the faster increase in the prices of cereals and cereal products, which included rice, corn, flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals with 12.3 percent in May 2024 from 9.5 percent in April.
The second driver of the food inflation was brought about by the increase of prices in vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with an inflation rate of 11.4 percent from 1.7 percent in the previous month.
Another component that contributed to the increase of inflation in food was the prices of meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals with 6.8 percent from 6.5 percent in April 2024.
Factors and impacts
With the increase in inflation rate, the El Niño phenomenon was what Sato considered a factor to the increase of prices of some goods and commodities.
Aside from the food, which came from agricultural products, Sato mentioned that even the electricity and housing commodity groups were part of the upward trend for the increase of the inflation for May 2024.
Sato attributed this to the heat brought by El Niño in which the public had experienced. He said that people tend to use the air conditioners and fans more to combat the sweltering weather.
Rex Jhay, an engineering student who rents a place in Cebu City together with his boardmates, shared with CDN Digital that he actually felt the inflation of the prices in foods that he bought recently.
“Yes [I felt it]… shocked. Because even if I don’t usually buy from grocery stores and only eat in carinderias, the prices of the food would eventually go up,” Rex said.
He said that for instance, if the prices of the ingredients increased, it would affect the prices of the viands and rice.
Inflation refers to the rate of price increase over a specific period of time which is also equivalent to a decline in the purchasing power of the peso, according to the PSA.
In the economics’ view, the increasing inflation rate is good for the business sector, said Melchor Bautista, PSA Cebu’s chief statistical specialist.
However, it would be unfortunate for the consumers because it would mean that they would have to pay more than the amount of the items they would usually buy.