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CEBU CITY, Philippines — The inflation rate in Central Visayas for August this year has decelerated to 3.4 percent, which is 1.1 percent lower than last July’s record with 4.5 percent, data from PSA-7 showed.
Engineer Felixberto Sato Jr., supervising statistical specialist of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-7), reported on Wednesday, Sept. 11, that the main drivers of this deceleration were contributed to the downtrend in the inflation of the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages and transportation.
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Food and non-alcoholic beverages
The food and non-alcoholic beverages went down from 8.6 percent in July to 5.8 percent in August this year, contributing 58.1 percent share to the downward trend.
Among the contributors to the slower increase of food and non-alcoholic beverages were the prices of cereal and cereal products with 14.4 percent (from 18 percent in July), fish and other seafood with -6.3 percent (from -2.9 percent in July), and vegetables, tubers, plantains and others with 6.9 percent (from 15.5 percent in July).
But for the food inflation alone, it went down from 9.1 percent in July to 6.2 percent in August.
Food inflation’s deceleration was mainly brought about by the slower year on year increase in the index of cereal and cereal products with 14.4 percent and 46.7 percent share, followed by fish and other seafood with -6.3 percent and 19.7 percent share, and vegetables, tubers, plantains, with 6.9 percent and 19.5 percent share.
Transport
Meanwhile, transport, which is the second driver to deceleration, posted -5.5 percent inflation in August from 2.0 percent in July, contributing 38.3 percent share of the downtrend.
The transport’s downtrend was primarily attributed to the decline in the prices of gasoline with a -7.3 percent rate in August (from 4.7 percent in July) and passenger transport by sea with -36.8 percent in August (from -7.6 percent in July).
The prices of gasoline has already been taken into account for this inflation, but as for the passenger transportation, Sato attributed it to the fare, especially on tickets.
“The PSA is getting fare for the passenger transport by sea and on land. It’s actually the fare taking into consideration also on the decrease of the gasoline of their inputs of their operation,” Sato said.
Although food and non-alcoholic beverages was the commodity group that primarily drove the downward trend in inflation, it is also the top contributor to August’s inflation accounting for 63.8 percent of the overall inflation.
Commodity groups
Meanwhile, among the commodity groups, three of which showed a faster annual increase in August compared to July.
These were the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels from 0.3 in July to 3.5 percent in August; next was the information and communication from 0.4 percent to 0.6 percent, and the education services from 4.9 percent to 7.2 percent.
The headline inflation rate for August 2024 in the Philippines closed at 3.3 percent which is still inside the bracket of the central bank’s 3.2 to 4.0 percent forecast.
“Tugma ito sa inaasahan ng BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) na babalik ang inflation sa target range na 2-4 percent sa Agosto matapos. Pansamantalang tumaas noong Hulyo dahil sa negatibong base effects at paghupa ng supply pressures sa pagkain, partikular ng bigas,” BSP said in a statement.
(It fit in to what the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) expected that the inflation will go back to the target range of 2 to 4 percent by the end of August. That it will go up in July because of the negative base effect and when the supply pressures on food, in particular rice, will ease.)
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.