Inflation — the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services — in Western Visayas quickened to 4.9 percent in June this year from 4.3 percent in the preceding month.
The acceleration, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-6), was driven by faster upticks in the costs of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels.
This commodity group, which posted a faster increase of 2.7 percent, contributed 98 percent to the uptrend in the region’s overall inflation last month.
“Basically, our electricity rate is a big weight that pulls our inflation rate to increase,” said Miguel Gallego, PSA-6 Statistical Specialist II.
The agency also attributed the higher inflation to the clothing and footwear and health commodities, which posted higher rates of price increases at 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
Among the provinces in the region, Aklan and Guimaras posted the highest inflation rate at 6.2 percent each, followed by Antique (5.8 percent), Iloilo ( 5.0 percent), Capiz (4.7 percent) and Negros Occidental (4.5 percent).
The highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod posted inflation rates of 2.2 percent from 1.3 percent and 6.1 percent from 4.5 percent, respectively.IMT
REPORTING by Eugine Soqueña, West Visayas State University College of Communication intern; EDITING by Reymar Latoza
