ILOILO CITY (PIA) -- The Western Visayas regional inflation minimally eased to 10.3 percent in January 2023 from 10.5 percent in December 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report said.

This was highlighted during the January 2023 Western Visayas Inflation Report and Forum, February 14, initiated by the Regional Statistics Committee (RSC) VI via Zoom.

The activity aims to serve as a venue to disseminate the latest price statistics to our stakeholders and discuss the policies and programs that will address the issues of inflation in the region.

Based on the report, after 10 consecutive months of acceleration since March 2022, the region’s inflation decreased by 0.2 percent. However, the same was 5.7 higher than that of the January 2022 inflation rate of 4.6 percent.

PSA 6 OIC regional director Nelida Amolar noted that the slowing down of inflation in the first month of 2023 was contributed by the lower annual growth recorded in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 10.6 percent, from 11.1 percent in December 2022.

It is followed by the restaurants and accommodation services index which declined to 8.8 percent, from 9.7 percent in the previous month. Clothing and footwear with an inflation rate of 3.4 percent in January 2023, from 3.5 percent in the previous month.

Lower annual increases were also observed in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 12.0 percent, and recreation, sport, and culture with 4.7 percent.

On the other hand, six commodity groups recorded an increase in inflation rates in January namely housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 15.1 percent; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance - 7.4 percent; health - 2.0 percent; transport - 14.7; information and communication - 2.6 percent; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services - 6.8 percent.

vegetables, tubers, plantains cooking bananas and pulses, and fruits and nuts.

While the rest of the food sub-groups noted a faster annual growth compared to that of the previous month, such as fish and other seafood; milk, other dairy products and eggs; oils and fats; sugar, confectionery, and desserts; and ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified.

Zooming in, five of the six provinces of the region reported lower inflation rates in January 2023, except for Aklan which increased from 7.7 in December 2022 to 7.9 in January of this year.

look at exchange rates, oil prices, they have started to go down. So, we hope that the stance of BSP in terms of increasing interest rates will also start to soften for us to sustain and expand our business,” he said, in response to the presentation on monetary policies of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Dr. Gregorio E. Baccay III, Bank Officer V of the BSP Visayas Regional Office, emphasized that the Bank remains committed to its inflation mandate by dealing aggressively with inflation pressures stemming from local and global factors.

“We are prepared to take all necessary policy actions to bring inflation toward a target-consistent path over the medium term, consistent with its primary objective to promote price stability," he stressed.

Other national government agencies, like the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry, also presented their interventions for affected agriculture and fisheries and trade, industry, and services sectors, respectively. (JBG/FRG/PIA6/with reports from PSA-RSSO6)