THE City of Mandaue recorded the highest uptick in inflation rate at 6.7 percent in March 2024, among highly urbanized cities (HUCs) and provinces in Central Visayas, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 7 on Friday, April 12, 2024.
Last year, the city also logged the highest inflation rate at 3.1 percent in March.
“The major contributor to Mandaue City’s (high inflation rate) is again food and non-alcoholic beverages, and transport, and last is the personal care and miscellaneous, goods and services,” said PSA 7 director Ariel Florendo, during the press conference of the March 2024 Inflation of Central Visayas on Friday.
Inflation refers to the general increase in prices of goods and services over a period of time. Florendo said the inflation rate is also equivalent to a decline in the purchasing power of the peso, which affects the real value of the peso in a given period.
The province of Cebu, meanwhile, recorded the lowest increase in inflation rate among the HUCs and provinces in Central Visayas at 0.3 percent in March 2024.
Florendo said that Mandaue City and the Cebu province were among the five HUCs and provinces in Central Visayas that have faster year-on-year growth in their inflation rates for March 2024 from the previous month. The region’s March inflation rate was higher than February 2024 at only -0.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Cebu City’s inflation rate for the month slightly went up to 4.7 percent from 4.5 percent in February. Lapu-Lapu City also recorded an uptick at 5.6 percent in March from 4.5 percent in February.
Florendo said that the main contributors to Lapu-Lapu City’s high inflation were the food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; and restaurant and accommodation services.
“So different ang iyahang mga major contributors, it depends on the place. But then again when we look at other provinces, the major contributors are still the food and non-alcoholic beverages and the rest kay magdula-dula na siya,” Florendo said.
(The major contributors vary, depending on the location. But when we examine other provinces, the primary contributors are still food and non-alcoholic beverages.)
Moreover, the inflation rate in Negros Oriental also spiked to 5.8 percent from 4.5 percent in February. The provinces of Bohol and Siquijor recorded slower inflation to 3.2 and 3.8 percent respectively. Both logged a four percent inflation rate in February. / EHP