EASTERN SAMAR

1.    Headline Inflation

Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Samar slowed down to 0.5 percent in April 2025 from 3.2 percent in March 2025. This is 0.1 percentage point lower compared to the 0.6 percent IR in Region VIII and 0.9 percentage point lower than the 1.4 percent IR of the Philippines. In April 2024, the inflation rate was 4.0 percent, higher by 3.5 percentage points compared to this month’s rate. (Figure 1, and Tables A and B)

Main Drivers of the Downward Trend of Eastern Samar’s Inflation

The downward trend in the province’s inflation rate in April 2025 was mainly driven by an annual decline of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.7 percent from a 2.9 percent annual increase in March 2025. Also, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which recorded a 2.6 percent inflation rate from an annual increase of 7.5 percent, and the faster annual decline of transport at 1.6 percent from a 0.4 percent annual decrease in the previous month, contributed to the downward trend of the province’s inflation. (Table C)

In addition, the following commodities registered slower inflation rates in April 2025:

(a)    Clothing and footwear, 1.4 percent from 1.7 percent;
(b)    Health, 0.4 percent from 0.7 percent;
(c)    Recreation, sport and culture, 1.3 percent from 1.7 percent; and
(d)    Information and communication, 0.3 percent from 0.4 percent.

On the other hand, compared with their previous month’s inflation rates, faster rates were recorded in furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at 2.7 percent from 2.2 percent; restaurants and accommodation services at 4.6 percent from 2.5 percent; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services at 1.3 percent from 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, education services, and financial services maintained their respective previous month’s inflation rates at 2.1 percent, 0.0 percent, and 0.0 percent.

Top Three Main Contributors to Eastern Samar Inflation

The following commodity groups were the top three contributors to the April 2025 inflation of the province of Eastern Samar:

a.    Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 90.8 percent share or 0.45 percentage point;
b.    Restaurants and accommodation services with 37.3 percent share or 0.19 percentage point; and 
c.    Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance with 21.1 percent share or 0.11 percentage point.
 

2.    Food Inflation

Inflation rate of food in the Province in April 2025 declined to 
1.0 percent from an annual increase of 3.0 percent in the previous month. In April 2024, food inflation was higher at 7.2 percent. (Table D)

Main Drivers of the Downward Trend of Food Inflation

The downward trend of food inflation in April 2025 was primarily due to the annual decline of fish and other seafood at 2.3 percent from an annual increase of 14.0 percent in March 2025. Also, the faster annual decline of cereals and cereal products at 6.7 percent from an annual drop at 4.0 percent, and vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses which slowed down to 13.9 percent from 17.2 percent in the previous month contributed to the downward trend of the province’s food inflation.

Also, the following food groups registered a slower annual increase in their inflation rates in April 2025 compared to that in the previous month:

(a)    Milk, other dairy products; 3.0 percent from 3.1 percent;
(b)    Sugar, confectionery and desserts; 1.0 percent from 1.1 percent;

On the other hand, meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals and ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified posted faster inflation rates at 7.1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively from 5.1 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively in the previous month.

Meanwhile, oils and fats recorded a slower annual decrease in inflation rate at 0.1 percent from an annual decline of 0.2 percent in March 2025.

Fruits and nuts retained its previous month’s rate at an annual decline of 2.1 percent.
 

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) strengthens at PhP 0.79 in April 2025

For this month, the Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) in Eastern Samar strengthened at 79 centavos. This indicates that the peso in 2018 has a value of 79 centavos in April 2025. (Figure 2)

TECHNICAL NOTES

Consumer Price Index (CPI) - is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year. It shows how much on the average, prices of goods and services have increased or decreased from a reference period known as the base year. The current CPI series is 2018-based.

The 2018 FIES expenditure data were used to directly estimate the 2018 CPI weights at the national and regional levels. However, the 2018 FIES estimates for the expenditure data at the provincial level were not directly utilized in estimating the CPI expenditure weights as the data at the provincial/city level may not be reliable with the use of the households' master sample (MS) that was utilized in selecting the 2018 FIES sample households. The MS was drawn using regions as domains in generating estimates in all the household surveys of the PSA starting July 2013. The provincial/city expenditure data were derived using the model-based method in small area estimation procedures using the regional expenditure data as the control total for all the expenditure data within the specific region. Using these estimates, the weight for each item of expenditure is computed as a proportion of that item of expenditure to the total national expenditure. A raking procedure was done to adjust the weights of the provinces so that the provincial weights when added up will equal to the regional weights.

The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, a variant of the Laspeyres formula with fixed base year period weights as shown below:

            ∑ [(Pn / P0) * (P0*Q0)]
CPI =               X 100
              ∑(P0*Q0)

where Pn    = current price
P0    = base year price or base price P0 * Q0 = base year weights

Base Period or Base Year - is the period, usually a year, at which the index number is set to 100. It is the reference point of the index number series.

Market Basket - is a term used to refer to a sample of goods and services that are commonly purchased and bought by an average Filipino household.

Inflation Rate (IR) - is defined as the annual rate of change or the year-to-year change in the CPI and is computed as:

(CPI2 – CPI1)
Inflation Rate =     X 100
                CPI1
where CPI2 = is the CPI in the second period CPI1 = is the CPI in the previous period
 

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) - is a measure of the real value the peso in a given period relative to a chosen reference period. It is computed by getting the reciprocal of the CPI and multiplying the result by 100.

PPP = (1/CPI  (All Items) *100 
 

RONNIE A. BAJADO
Chief Statistical Specialist