Eastern Visayas

The Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Visayas slowed down to 0.6 percent in April 2025 from 1.0 percent in March 2025. This is the lowest IR since the 0.4 percent IR in November 2019. This brings the region’s average IR from January to April 2025 to 1.0 percent. The regional IR was lower than the 1.4 percent national IR in April 2025. Moreover, the regional IR in April 2024 was higher at 3.6 percent (Table 1 and 2).

Main Drivers to the Downward Trend of the Regional Inflation

The downtrend of the regional IR in April 2025 was primarily brought about by the faster annual price decrease of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group at 0.5 percent in April 2025 from its annual price drop of 0.2 percent in March 2025. The faster annual price decrease of the transport commodity group at 2.4 percent in April 2025 from its annual price decline of 1.0 percent in the previous month also contributed to the downtrend of the regional IR. Moreover, the slower IR of the commodity group housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 3.5 percent in April 2025, from 3.9 percent in March 2025 likewise contributed to the overall decrease of the regional IR.

In addition, slower IRs were recorded in the following commodity groups:

a. Health, 1.7 percent from 2.0 percent;  
b. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent; and  
c. Clothing and footwear, 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent.

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

a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 3.7 percent from 3.3 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 1.3 percent.

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

a. Information and communication, 0.3 percent;  
b. Recreation, sport and culture, 1.6 percent; and  
c. Education services, 8.2 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 April 2025 regional IR were the following:

a. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, with 101.2 percent share or 0.61 percentage point;  
b. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 16.0 percent share or 0.10 percentage point; and  
c. Education services, with 14.5 percent share or 0.09 percentage point.

Food Inflation

The food index registered an annual price decrease of 0.6 percent in April 2025 from its annual price drop of 0.4 percent in March 2025. In April 2024, food index recorded at 6.8 percent IR (Table 3).

The faster annual price drop for food in April 2025 was primarily influenced by the faster annual price decrease of rice at 11.9 percent in April 2025 from its annual price decrease of 8.9 percent in March 2025. The slower IR of ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified at 4.2 percent in April 2025, from 4.6 percent in March 2025 also contributed to the faster annual price decrease of the food index.

In contrast, faster IRs were registered in the following food groups:

a. Corn, 2.4 percent from 1.8 percent;  
b. Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, 1.6 percent from 1.5 percent;  
c. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 6.8 percent from 5.1 percent;  
d. Fish and other seafood, 4.3 percent from 3.5 percent;  
e. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 2.6 percent from 1.8 percent;  
f. Fruits and nuts, 3.1 percent from 1.4 percent; and  
g. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, 9.5 percent from 7.2 percent.

Oils and fats retained its 0.2 percent IR in March 2025, while sugar, confectionary and desserts maintained its previous month’s annual price decrease of 0.3 percent.

Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

The annual price decrease in food pulled down the overall regional IR in April 2025 by -55.0 percent or -0.33 percentage point. The food groups with the highest contribution to the annual price decrease of 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 577.4 percent share or -3.46 percentage point; and  
b. Sugar, confectionary and desserts, with 1.5 percent share or -0.01 percentage point.

Inflation Rate by Region

In comparison with their IRs in March 2025, all regions recorded lower IRs in April 2025, except for NCR which registered higher IR in April 2025. Eastern Visayas’ IR at 0.6 percent ranked sixth among the regions with low IRs during the month in review. In April 2025, Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley recorded the highest IR both at 2.0 percent. On the other hand, SOCCSKSARGEN and BARMM registered deflation (negative inflation) or annual decline in the average prices of goods and commodities at 1.4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively (Figure 2 and Table 4).

Inflation Rate by Province/HUC

Relative to their IRs in March 2025, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte registered lower IRs in April 2025. On the other hand, Leyte and the lone Highly Urbanized City of Tacloban recorded higher IRs during the month in review. Among the provinces, Leyte posted the highest IR at 1.5 percent in April 2025. This was followed by Biliran at 1.1 percent, Eastern Samar at 0.5 percent, Northern Samar at 0.1 percent, and Southern Leyte with zero inflation. The lowest year-on-year price change among the provinces was registered in Samar with 0.9 percent annual price drop. Meanwhile, Tacloban City registered 0.9 percent IR in April 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