THE inflation rate for Cebu Province continued to rise in July, while the three highly urbanized cities (HUCs) of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu saw a decline in their inflation rates, according to an official from the Cebu Provincial Statistical Office on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.
Cebu Province’s headline inflation accelerated to four percent in July 2024 from 3.5 percent in June 2024.
This is primarily influenced by the year-on-year faster increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 9.6 percent from 7.8 percent in June 2024, according to Melchor Bautista, chief statistical specialist of the Cebu Provincial Statistical Office, during a press briefing live streamed on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.
“For the Province of Cebu ang iyahang (its) main sources of acceleration is food, particularly corn, meat products, fish, and seafood,” said Bautista.
He said the acceleration of food inflation in July in the province was mainly brought by the faster annual increases of corn at 31.8 percent, meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 9.3 percent, and fruits and nuts at 4.9 percent.
As to the month of June, the province’s inflation rate experienced a consistent uptrend with a 1.2 percentage rate increase from 2.3 percent in May, largely attributed to the faster increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages (7.8 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (-3.5 percent); and transport (0.8 percent).
Inflation rate refers to a decline in the purchasing power of the peso. lt is the change in the Consumer Price lndex over a specific period of time (usually a month or a year) as defined by Philippine Statistic Authority.
Downtrend in three HUCs
Among the three HUCs in Cebu, Mandaue City maintained a consistent decline in its inflation rate for the third consecutive month since May.
Meanwhile, both Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City saw their inflation rates decrease for the first time this year.
Mandaue City’s inflation rate dropped to 6.2 percent in July 2024, down from 7.4 percent in June. However, this remains higher than the 2.5 percent recorded in July 2023.
The main contributors to the city’s downward inflation trend were housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, which decreased to 13.3 percent, along with alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 0.9 percent, and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services at 3.4 percent.
The city’s inflation rate saw its first decline in May, dropping to 7.3 percent from 7.6 percent in April. This downward trend continued in June, with the rate further decreasing to 7.4 percent.
Cebu City’s inflation rate also fell, decreasing to 5.3 percent in July 2024 from 5.9 percent in June. However, this was still higher than the 2.9 percent recorded in July 2023.
Drivers of the downtrend for Cebu City’s inflation in July 2024 were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels.
Lapu-Lapu City’s headline inflation rate dropped to 6.1 percent in July 2024, down from 6.5 percent in June. However, this remains significantly higher than the 2.1 percent recorded in July 2023.
The city’s downward trend was mainly driven by the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index, which decreased to 4.6 percent from 5.5 percent in the previous month. / CDF