Eastern Visayas

The Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Visayas remained at 2.1 percent in November 2024. This brings the region's average IR from January to November 2024 to 3.3 percent. The regional IR was lower than the 2.5 percent national IR in November 2024. Moreover, the regional IR in November 2023 was higher at 3.5 percent (Table 1 and 2).

Main Contributors to the Regional Inflation

The top three commodity groups that contributed to the November 2024 regional IR were the following:

a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 64.1 percent share or 1.4 percentage points; 
b. Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, with 22.2 percent share or 0.5 percentage point; and 
c. Education services, with 4.6 percent share or 0.1 percentage point.

Food Inflation

The IR for food index increased to 3.0 percent in November 2024 from 2.8 percent in October 2024. The IR for food in November 2023 was higher at 8.0 percent (Table 3).

The increase of the IR for food in November 2024 was primarily influenced by the slower price decrease of fish and other seafood at 0.3 percent during the month from its annual price decrease of 3.7 percent in October 2024. Likewise, the slower price decline of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses at 0.7 percent during the month from its annual price decline of 4.5 percent in October 2024 contributed to the increase in food IR. In addition, the slower price decrease of oils and fats at 0.9 percent during the month from its annual price decrease of 1.1 percent in October 2024 contributed to the uptrend of the food IR.

In contrast, slower IRs were noted in the following commodity groups:

a. Rice, 7.1 percent from 8.5 percent; 
b. Corn, 4.8 from 6.1 percent; 
c. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 2.2 percent from 2.6 percent; 
d. Fruits and nuts; 10.5 percent from 15.6 percent; and 
e. Ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified, 4.1 percent from 4.6 percent.

Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products and other cereals, and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals retained its IRs in October 2024 at 1.8 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. Moreover, sugar, confectionery and desserts retained its previous month’s annual price decline at 2.9 percent.

Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

Food inflation shared 61.6 percent or 1.3 percentage points to the overall inflation in November 2024. The food groups with the highest contribution to the food inflation 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 77.4 percent share or 2.3 percentage points; 
b. Fruits and nuts, with 12.6 percent share or 0.4 percentage point; and 
c. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals with 5.8 percent share or 0.2 percentage point.

Inflation Rate by Region

In comparison with their IRs in October 2024, six (6) regions recorded higher IRs in November 2024. Seven (7) regions exhibited lower IRs, while the remaining four (4) regions moved the same as previous month. Eastern Visayas’ IR at 2.1 percent ranked third among the regions with low IRs during the month in review. In November 2024, Cagayan Valley recorded the highest IR at 3.4 percent while SOCCSKSARGEN, Caraga Region, and BARMM recorded the lowest IRs at 1.7 percent (Figure 2 and Table 4).

Inflation Rate by Province/HUC

Relative to their IRs in October 2024, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Samar, Southern Leyte, and the lone Highly Urbanized City (HUC) of Tacloban recorded higher IRs in November 2024. On the other hand, Northern Samar and Biliran registered lower IRs during the month. Among the provinces, Biliran posted the highest IR at 2.8 percent in November 2024. The IR for Southern Leyte followed at 2.6 percent and Leyte at 2.3 percent. Eastern Samar and Samar came next both at 2.0 percent. The lowest IR among the provinces was registered in Northern Samar at 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, Tacloban City, registered 1.4 percent IR in November 2024 (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