CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--The inflation rate in northern Mindanao soared to 8.4 percent in January 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-10 said.

PSA-10 Officer-in-Charge Janith Aves said at a press conference that the inflation rate has gone up by 0.6 percentage points since December 2022, when it was 7.8 percent.

She said the main driver of inflation in January was food and non-alcoholic beverages, with an inflation rate of 12.1 percent, up from 11 percent in December 2022.

"The top contributors to the 1.1 percentage point increase of inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverages were vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses which accelerated its inflation by six percentage points," Aves said.

Onions were one of the contributors to the uptrend in inflation of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, and pulses.

Food commodities that primarily contributed to the inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages are fish and other seafood at 13.6% inflation, with flying fish as the major contributor; and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 14.8% inflation, with fresh pork as the main contributor.

Aves also said housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, which made up 5.3% of inflation in January, and personal care and other goods and services, which made up 5.6% of inflation, were the other factors.

She said the sources of the spike in the inflation of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels were rentals at 5.1 percent; LPG at 14.1 percent, and wood fuel at 5.1 percent.

"The major contributor to the 1.5 percentage point increase of inflation of personal care and miscellaneous goods and services is other appliances, articles, and products at 3.9 percent from 3 percent in December of 2022," she added. (APB/PIA-10)