Eastern Visayas

The Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Visayas decreased to 1.1 percent in February 2025 from 1.3 percent in January 2025. This brings the region’s average IR from January to February 2025 to 1.2 percent. The regional IR was lower than the 2.1 percent national IR in February 2025. Moreover, the regional IR in February 2024 was higher at 3.7 percent (Table 1 and 2).

Main Drivers to the Downward Trend of the Regional Inflation

The downtrend of the regional IR in February 2025 was primarily brought about by the slower IR of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.7 percent in February 2025 from 1.0 percent in January 2025. The slower IR for transport commodity group at 0.1 percent in February 2025 from 0.6 percent in the previous month also contributed to the downtrend of the regional IR. Moreover, the slower IR of personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services at 1.3 percent in February 2025 from 1.7 percent in January 2025 contributed to the overall decrease of the regional IR.

In addition, the commodity groups of health and recreation, sport and culture registered slower IR in February 2025 at 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent, from 1.7 percent and 2.0 percent in January 2025, respectively.

In contrast, the commodity group of alcoholic beverages and tobacco registered higher IR at 3.4 percent in February 2025 from 3.0 percent in January 2025. In addition, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel also recorded higher IR at 2.2 percent in February 2025 from 1.7 percent in January 2025.

Meanwhile, the following commodity groups retained their previous month’s IR:

a. Clothing and footwear, 0.8 percent; 
b. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 1.2 percent; 
c. Information and communication, 0.3 percent; 
d. Education services; 8.2 percent; and 
e. Restaurants and accommodation services, 0.9 percent

The IR for financial services remained at zero percent during the month (Table 3).

Main Contributors to the Regional Inflation

The top three commodity groups that contributed to the February 2025 regional IR were the following:

a. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, with 34.6 percent share or 0.4 percentage points; 
b. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 28.5 percent share or 0.3 percentage point; 
c. Education services, with 8.4 percent share or 0.1 percentage point.

Food Inflation

The IR for food index further decreased to 0.6 percent in February 2025 from 0.9 percent in January 2025. The IR for food in February 2024 was higher at 7.0 percent (Table 3).

The decrease of the IR for food in February 2025 was primarily influenced by the faster annual price decrease of rice at 6.3 percent during the month from its annual price decrease of 4.2 percent IR in January 2025. The slower IR of the commodity group of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses at 6.0 percent during the month from 8.7 percent in January 2025 also contributed to the downtrend.

In addition, the commodity group of sugar, confectionary and desserts recorded faster annual price decline of 2.0 percent in February 2025 from its annual price decrease of 1.9 percent in January 2025.

Moreover, flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals commodity group recorded slower IR at 1.6 percent in February 2025 from 1.7 percent in January 2025.

In contrast, higher IRs were recorded in the following commodity groups:

a. Corn, 1.5 percent from 0.9 percent; 
b. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 3.7 percent from 1.0 percent; 
c. Fish and other seafood, 4.9 percent from 4.5 percent; 
d. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 2.3 percent from 2.0 percent; 
e. Fruits and nuts, 5.9 percent from 4.5 percent; and 
f. Ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified, 5.0 percent from 4.9 percent.

In addition, oils and fats commodity group retained its previous month’s annual price decrease of 0.2 percent.

Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

Food inflation shared 22.5 percent or 0.3 percentage point to the overall IR in February 2025. The food groups with the highest contribution to the food inflation during the month were the following:

a. Fish and other seafood, with 221.0 percent share or 1.33 percentage point; 
b. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, with 143.6 percent share or 0.9 percentage point; and 
c. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with 117.0 percent share or 0.7 percentage point.

Inflation Rate by Region

In comparison with their IRs in January 2025, all the regions recorded lower IRs in February 2025, except for Central Visayas which retained its previous month’s IR. Eastern Visayas’ IR at 1.1 percent ranked fourth lowest among the regions during the month in review and was at par with Caraga Region. In February 2025, SOCCSKSARGEN recorded the lowest IR at 0.3 percent annual price drop while Cagayan Valley recorded the highest IR at 3.9 percent. (Figure 2 and Table 4).

Inflation Rate by Province/HUC

Relative to their IRs in January 2025, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte registered lower IRs in February 2025. On the other hand, Biliran Leyte, and the lone Highly Urbanized City (HUC) of Tacloban recorded higher IRs during the month. Among the provinces, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 1.8 percent in February 2025. This was followed by Biliran at 1.6 percent, Leyte at 1.5 percent, Southern Leyte at 1.1 percent, and Northern Samar at 0.7 percent. The lowest IR among the provinces was registered in Samar at 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, Tacloban City, registered 1.1 percent IR in February 2025 (Figure 3 and Table 5).

TECHNICAL NOTES

The CPI for the bottom 30% income households is compiled by the PSA to measure the changes of prices of commodities commonly purchased by the families that belong to the bottom 30% income decile. The   
process of price collection and CPI computation is the same as that of the CPI for all income households.

However, there is a separate market basket and weights for the CPI for the bottom 30% income households.

BASE YEAR - is a period at which the index number is set to 100. It is the reference point of the index number series. The CPI is rebased from 2012 to 2018.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (CPI) - is an indicator of the change in the average prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year.

DEFLATION - is the decline in prices for goods and services that happens when the inflation rate dips below zero percent.

INFLATION RATE (IR) - is the annual rate of change or the year-on-year changes in CPI. It indicates how fast or how slow price changes over two time periods (year-on-year). Contrary to common knowledge, low inflation does not necessarily connote that prices of commodities are falling. It means that prices continue to increase but at a slower rate.

MARKET BASKET - refers to a sample of goods and services commonly purchased by the households. The market basket for CPI was updated using the results of the 2021 Survey of Key Informants (SKI). The commodities included in the 2018-based CPI market basket were the modal commodities which were considered as the most commonly purchased/availed commodities by the households. The commodities in the 2018-based CPI market basket were grouped/classified according to the 2020 Philippine Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (PCOICOP).

MONITORING OF PRICES - involves establishing baseline information for the prices of the items in the base year and monitoring the prices of the items on a regular basis. Data collection for the CPI is done by the provincial office twice a month, except for petroleum products which are monitored on a weekly basis, every Friday. First collection phase is done during the first five days of the month while the second phase is on the 15th to 17th day of the month.

PURCHASING POWER OF PESO (PPP) - gives an indication of the real value of peso (how much it is worth) in a given period relative to its value in the base period. It is computed as the reciprocal of CPI multiplied by 100.

RETAIL PRICE - refers to the actual price at which retailers sell a commodity on spot or earliest delivery, usually in small quantities for consumption and not for resale. It is confined to transactions on cash basis in the free market and excludes underground prices and prices of commodities that are on sale as in summer sales, anniversary sales, Christmas sales, etc.

WEIGHTS - is a value attached to a commodity or group of commodities to indicate the relative importance of that commodity or group of commodities in the market basket. The weights for the 2018-based CPI were derived from the expenditure data of the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). The weight for each commodity/group of commodities is the proportion of the expenditure commodity/group of commodities to the total national expenditure. The sum of the weights of the commodity groups at the national level is equal to 100.

SGD. WILMA A. PERANTE   
Regional Director