Eastern Visayas    

The Inflation Rate (IR) for the bottom 30% income households in Eastern Visayas continued to slow down to 0.2 percent in March 2025 from 0.5 percent in February 2025. This brings the regional average IR from January to March 2025 to 0.5 percent. Moreover, the regional IR for this income group was lower than the 1.1 percent national IR recorded in March 2025. The region’s IR for the bottom 30% income households in March 2024 was higher at 4.5 percent (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 March 2025 was the faster annual price decrease in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group recorded at 1.2 percent from 0.2 annual price decrease in February 2025. This was followed by the 0.2 percent annual price decrease registered in transport commodity group in March 2025 from 0.7 percent IR in the previous month.  

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

a. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent; 
b. Recreation, sport and culture, 1.8 percent from 2.0 percent; and 
c. Information and communication, 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent.

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

a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent; 
b. Clothing and footwear, 1.0 percent from 0.9 percent; 
c. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 4.6 percent from 1.4 percent;  
d. Health, 1.9 percent from 1.4 percent; and 
e. Personal care and miscellaneous goods and services, 1.4 percent from 1.3 percent.

Meanwhile, education services and restaurants and accommodation services commodity groups retained their previous month’s IR at 12.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. 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 March 2025 regional IR for the bottom 30% income households were the following:

a. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 252.1 percent share or 0.50 percentage point; 
b. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 50.5 percent share or 0.10 percentage point; and 
c. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, with 24.4 percent 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 1.5 percent in March 2025 from 0.3 percent IR in February 2025. In March 2024, food inflation for this income group was posted at 8.3 percent (Table 3).

The decrease of food IR for the bottom 30% income households was primarily brought about by the faster annual price decrease in rice at 9.4 percent in March 2025, from a 6.7 percent annual price decrease in February 2025. The annual price decrease of fruits and nuts commodity group at 0.1 percent during the month, from 4.9 percent in February 2025 also contributed to the downtrend of the food IR. Fish and other seafood commodity group also recorded slower IR at 4.4 percent in March 2025, from 5.1 percent in the previous month.

In addition, the following food groups recorded slower IRs during the month in review:

a. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 1.8 percent from 2.4 percent;  
b. Ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified, 5.8 percent from 6.1 percent; and 
c. Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, 1.7 percent from 1.9 percent.

In contrast, higher IRs were observed in the following food groups in March 2025 compared with their IRs in February 2025:

a. Corn, 2.5 percent from 1.4 percent; 
b. Meat, and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 5.5 percent from 3.9 percent; and 
c. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, 6.2 percent from 5.4 percent.

Moreover, oils and fats registered an annual price increase of 0.1 IR in March 2025, from 0.1 percent annual price decrease in the previous month. Sugar, confectionery and desserts recorded slower annual price decrease at 0.3 percent in March 2025 from 2.4 percent annual price decrease in February 2025.

Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

The annual price decrease in food pulled down the regional IR for the bottom 30% income household in March 2025 by 0.65 percentage point. 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 245.7 percent share or -3.69 percentage points; and 
b. Sugar, confectionery and desserts, with 0.6 percent share or -0.01 percentage point.

Inflation Rate by Region

In comparison with their IRs in February 2025, 14 regions registered lower IRs for the bottom 30% income households in March 2025, two (2) regions recorded higher IRs while the remaining one (1) retained its previous month’s IR. Eastern Visayas’ IR for the bottom 30% income household at 0.2 percent ranked fifth among the regions with low IRs during the month in review and was at par with Caraga Region.

In March 2025, the lowest IR for this income group was observed in Davao Region at 1.6 percent annual decrement, while the highest IR was recorded in Western Visayas at 2.8 percent (Figure 2 and Table 4).

Inflation Rate by Province

Relative to their IRs for the bottom 30% income households in February 2025, The lone Highly Urbanized City of Tacloban and four (4) provinces, namely, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte recorded lower IRs in March 2025. Eastern Samar registered higher IR, while Biliran retained its previous month’s IR. For this income group, Eastern Samar registered the highest IR among the provinces at 3.1 percent. This was followed by Biliran at 0.7 percent, Leyte at 0.3 percent, Southern Leyte at 0.2 percent, and Northern Samar with 0.6 percent annual price drop off. The lowest IR for this income group was noted in Samar at an annual price decrease of 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, Tacloban City recorded 0.5 percent annual price decrease 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