TACLOBAN CITY -- Eastern Visayas closed 2021 with a 3.4% Inflation Rate (IR) in December. This IR is 0.4% lower as compared to the 3.8% IR in November 2021. However, December 2021 IR of the region is 1.0% higher than the recorded 2.4% IR of the same period last year. In comparison with the national average IR, the regional IR is lower by 0.2% than the 3.6% national IR in December 2021.
Among the provinces, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 4.4% in December 2021. Biliran’s IR came next at 4.2%, and Samar at 3.7%. The lowest IR was noted in Southern Leyte at 2.2%. All provinces exhibited lower IRs in December 2021 as compared to their figures in November 2021.
Further, Samar recorded the biggest drop of 1.7 percentage points from its 5.4% IR a month ago, registering 3.7% IR in December 2021. The IR in Southern Leyte moved at a slower pace of 2.2% in December 2021, 1.2% points lower than its 3.4% IR in November 2021. Northern Samar on the other hand recorded 1.0 percentage point decrease, bringing its December 2021 IR down to 3.0%.
Meanwhile, IR of Leyte, Biliran, and Eastern Samar all eased by 0.1 percentage point in December 2021, settling at 3.0%, 4.2%, and 4.4%, respectively. In December 2021, only the commodity groups of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services registered IRs higher than their previous month’s levels by 0.3 percentage point, 0.1 percentage point, and 0.1 percentage point, respectively. All other commodity groups have either lower or retained their November IRs.
Transport commodity group on the other hand, posted the highest IR during the month in review at 6.7%, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group at 6.2%. All the other commodity groups have IRs lower than the IR for all items recorded at 3.4%.
As to the alcoholic beverages and tobacco commodity group, it registered the biggest decrease in IR with 2.8%, which settled at 2.3% in December 2021 from 5.1% in November 2021. This can be traced in the declines of IRs in both indices of tobacco and alcoholic beverages by 1.0 percentage point and 3.9 percentage points, respectively. Slower IR was also noted in the transport commodity group, from 8.7% in November 2021 to 6.7% in December 2021. This 2.0% decrease in IR was brought about by the reduction of the double-digit IR in the operation of personal transport equipment index by 9.7%.
The IR for food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group in December 2021 slowed down to 3.3 percent from 4.0% in November 2021. The IR for vegetables dropped to 1.0% in December 2021 from 5.0% in November 2021, the highest decline of 4.0 percentage points. The IR for fish fell to 9.7% in December 2021 from its double-digit IR of 12.4 percent a month ago. Slower IRs were also exhibited in the indices of food products not elsewhere class oils and fats (1.4%); sugar, jam, honey, chocolate, and confectionery (1.1%); and milk, cheese, and eggs (0.7%). The index of rice and corn continued to register deflations but at a slower rate of 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively. The index of non-alcoholic beverages retained its previous month’s IR at 0.2%, while bread and cereals retained its previous month’s deflation of 1.2%. On the other hand, meat index continued to register double-digit IR at 14.4% in December 2021. Prices for fruits also picked-up posting IR of 6.1% in during the month in review.
Compared with its November 2021 levels, IR for clothing and footwear commodity group (1.4%) declined by 0.2 percentage point in December 2021. The IR for health commodity group likewise eased by 0.1 percentage point, settling at 0.9% in December 2021. On the other hand, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group’s IR increased to 6.2% in December 2021 from 5.9% November 2021, recording a slight increase of 0.3 percentage point. This uptick in IR was brought about by the higher double-digit IR in the electricity, gas, and other fuels index posted at 17.9%. The IRs for restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services commodity group and furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house commodity group both inched up by 0.1 percentage point registering 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively, in December 2021.
Meanwhile, the commodity groups of recreation and culture; communication; and education retained their previous month’s IRs at 0.9%, 0.7%, and 0.1%, respectively. The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of the region remained at P0.75 in December 2021. This PPP implies that the goods and services worth P75.00 in 2012 was already worth P100.00 in December 2021. Compared with their levels in November 2021, PPP in Biliran and Northern Samar both weakened by P0.01. The rest of the provinces retained their previous month’s PPP. Biliran and Leyte recorded the strongest PPP at P0.78, while Samar posted the weakest PPP during the reference month at P0.69. (GTT with reports from PSA RSSO 8)
