Eastern Visayas

The average prices of goods and services for the bottom 30% income households in Eastern Visayas registered an annual price decrease of 0.4 percent in April 2025, from 0.2 percent IR in March 2025. This brings the regional average IR from January to April 2025 to 0.2 percent. Moreover, the regional IR for this income group was lower than the 0.1 percent national IR recorded in April 2025. In April 2024, the region registered 4.8 percent IR for the bottom 30% income households (Tables 1 and 2).

Main Drivers of the Downtrend of the Regional Inflation

The main driver to the deceleration of the regional inflation for the bottom 30% income households in April 2025 was the faster annual price decrease in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group recorded at 1.8 percent from 1.2 percent annual price decrease in March 2025. This was followed by the slower IR of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels commodity group at 2.7 percent in April 2025 from 4.6 percent IR in the previous month.

Moreover, slower IRs were noted in the following commodity groups during the month:

a. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 0.9 percent from 1.2 percent;
b. Health, 1.4 percent from 1.9 percent; and
c. Clothing and footwear, 0.8 percent from 1.0 percent.

In addition, the transport commodity group registered faster price decline at 0.9 percent during the month, from 0.2 percent annual price decline in March 2025.

On the other hand, compared with their IRs in March 2025, higher IRs were observed in the following commodity groups:

a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 4.3 percent from 3.9 percent;
b. Restaurants and accommodation services, 0.9 percent from 0.8 percent; and
c. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 1.6 percent from 1.4 percent.

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

a. Information and communication, 0.2 percent;
b. Recreation, sport and culture, 1.8 percent; and
c. Education services, 12.7 percent.

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

Main Contributors to the Regional Inflation

The top two commodity groups that contributed to the annual price decrease for the bottom 30% income households in April 2025 were the following:

a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages, with 256.0 percent share or -1.02 percentage points; and
b. Transport, with 13.1 percent share or -0.05 percentage point.

Food Inflation

Food inflation for the bottom 30% income households in Eastern Visayas recorded a faster annual price decline of 2.1 percent in April 2025 from 1.5 percent annual price decline in March 2025. In April 2024, food inflation for this income group was posted at 8.6 percent (Table 3).

The faster annual price decrease of the food index for the bottom 30% income households was primarily brought about by the faster annual price decrease of rice at 12.4 percent in April 2025, from a 9.4 percent annual price decrease in March 2025. The slower IR observed in ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified commodity group at 4.9 percent during the month, from 5.8 percent in March 2025, also contributed to the faster annual price decrease.

In addition, corn registered slower IR at 1.5 percent in April 2025, from 2.5 percent in the previous month. Moreover, sugar, confectionery and desserts commodity group recorded faster annual price decrease at 0.4 percent in April 2025, from 0.3 percent annual price decrease in the previous month.

In contrast, the following food groups recorded faster IRs during the month in review:

a. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 7.2 percent from 5.5 percent;
b. Fish and other seafood, 4.8 percent from 4.4 percent;
c. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 2.9 percent from 1.8 percent;
d. Oils and fats, 0.3 percent from 0.1 percent; and
e. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, 8.8 percent from 6.2 percent.

Moreover, fruits and nuts registered an IR of 1.8 percent in April 2025, from 0.1 percent annual price decrease in the previous month.

Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products and other cereals, meanwhile, retained its IR in April 2025 at 1.7 percent.

Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

The annual price decrease in food pulled down the regional IR for the bottom 30% income household in April 2025 by 1.12 percentage points. 
The food groups with the highest contribution to the annual price decrease in food during the month were the following:

a. Cereals and cereal products, which includes rice, corn, flour, bread, and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, with 226.1 percent share or -4.75 percentage points; and
b. Sugar, confectionery and desserts, with 0.5 percent share or -0.01 percentage point.

Inflation Rate by Region

In comparison with their IRs in March 2025, all regions registered lower IRs for the bottom 30% income households in April 2025, except for NCR which registered higher IR. Eastern Visayas’ annual price decline for this income group at 0.4 percent ranked fourth among the seven (7) regions with lower IRs during the month in review, and was at par with Northern Mindanao which recorded annual declines. In April 2025, SOCCKSARGEN registered the fastest annual decline at 2.5 percent. On the other hand, NCR recorded the highest IR at 2.4 percent (Figure 2 and Table 4).

Inflation Rate by Province

The average prices of goods and services for the bottom 30% income households in Biliran, Eastern Samar, and Southern Leyte recorded annual price decreases in April 2025 after registering IRs in March 2025. Northern Samar and Samar recorded faster annual price decreases in April 2025, while Leyte and the lone Highly Urbanized City of Tacloban registered faster IR.

For this income group, only Leyte registered a positive IR among the provinces at 0.9 percent. The rest of the provinces had annual price drop offs, with Samar recording the fastest decline at 1.6 percent. This was followed by Northern Samar and Southern Leyte both with 1.4 percent annual decline, Eastern Samar with 1.0 percent annual decline, and Biliran with 0.6 percent annual price decline. Meanwhile, Tacloban City recorded 0.2 percent IR in April 2025 from its 0.5 percent annual decline in March 2025 (Figure 3 and Table 5).
 

TECHNICAL NOTES

The current CPI series is 2018-based. The rebasing to 2018 is the 12th base period and 11th rebasing for CPI. The five steps involved in the rebasing/computing of CPI are as follows: (1) identification of the base year (2) determination of the market basket (3) determination of household consumption patterns/weights (4) monitoring of prices of items in the basket and (5) computation of CPI.

The 2018-based CPI series uses the same method of computation as the 2012-based CPI series, which is chained Laspeyres formula.

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