A photo of a few sky-rise buildings in Cebu City on a sunny day. CDN Digital File Photo | Carl Ong
CEBU CITY, Philippines — After observing a significant downtrend in the inflation rate in September 2024, Cebu Province’s inflation rate accelerated to 2.8 percent in October, as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority Cebu (PSA-Cebu).
PSA Cebu Chief Statistical Specialist Melchor Bautista stated during the inflation dissemination report on Thursday that the main drivers of the uptrend were attributed to increases in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 4.4 percent (up from 1.1 percent last month), housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 2.8 percent (up from 2.2 percent last month), and the transport commodity group at -1.3 percent (up from -8.6 percent).
READ: Inflation rate in C. Visayas for October 2024 rises to 2.9% — PSA
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In addition to Cebu Province, the City of Cebu also experienced an increase in its inflation rate for October, rising to 4.2 percent from 3.9 percent in September.
Meanwhile, Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City recorded a downtrend in their inflation rates at 2.6 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, down from 4.3 percent and 5.4 percent in September.
Regarding the uptrend, Bautista explained that, in addition to these commodity groups, some factors could also be attributed to seasonal changes, mentioning that Luzon and the Visayas were recently affected by typhoons.
As for the uptrend, Bautista said that aside from the commodity groups, some factors can also be attributed to the change of seasons, noting that the Luzon and Visayas were affected by the typhoons recently.
“Ang ato bayang mga sources sa agricultural commodities nga padung sa Cebu [ang uban] coming from Luzon, so apektado sila sa sunod-sunod nga bagyo. Usa na siya sa hinungdan,” Bautista said.
When a typhoon strikes the area, it can significantly impact agricultural crops.
Earlier, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported that the agriculture sector suffered a loss of P6.83 billion due to the combined effects of storms Kristine and Leon.
According to the DA’s latest bulletin, the weather disturbances disrupted the livelihoods of 171,080 farmers and fishers in the Cordillera, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western, Central, and Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Soccsksargen, and Caraga regions.
As for the downtrend in other areas, Bautista mentioned that since commodities sold in Cebu do not solely come from Cebu Island, the downtrend may be due to lower prices in other regions.
“Usually man gud, ang source diri sa City inflow siya coming from other provinces. Some also coming from Mindanao. Most likely nga ang source sa meat products nato from other provinces mas lower from Cebu,” he said.
At the national level, the Philippines’ headline inflation for October this year stands at 2.3 percent, up from 1.9 percent in September.
According to the Central Bank, the national target for the inflation rate is between 2 and 4 percent.
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. — with a report from Philippine Daily Inquirer
/clorenciana