Davao Region's inflation dropped to 4.9 percent in November, down from 5.2 percent in October 2023 and significantly lower than the 9.7 percent recorded in November 2022.
The Philippine Statistics Authority-Davao Region (PSA-Davao Region) attributed the decline to the slower annual growth rate in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, which decreased from -0.6 percent to -1.5 percent.
Slower annual increments in restaurants and accommodation services (10.1 percent from 11.3 percent) and transport (0.4 percent from 1.2 percent) also contributed to the downward trend.
The decrease is also linked to lower annual growth of basic commodities, such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco (12.5 percent from 13.8 percent), clothing and footwear (5.6 percent from 6.1 percent), furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance (5.1 percent from 5.9 percent), health (4.6 percent from 5.2 percent), information and communication (1.0 percent from 1.2 percent), recreation, sport, and culture (7.0 percent from 7.3 percent), and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services (5.6 percent from 6.3 percent).
Food and non-alcoholic beverages observed a faster annual growth rate at 7.7 percent, up from 7.1 percent, while education services and financial services retained their previous month’s inflation rates.
However, the food sector's inflation rate increased to 7.7 percent in November 2023 from 7.0 percent in the previous month, with Cereals and cereal products (16.3 percent from 14.6 percent) identified as the main driver.
The Davao Region's average inflation from January to November 2023 was 6.4 percent.
Davao City had the highest inflation rate at 7.7 percent, followed by Davao Oriental (8.2 percent), Davao de Oro (7.0 percent), Davao Occidental (5.5 percent), Davao del Sur (5.0 percent), and Davao del Norte (3.8 percent).
The country's inflation rate is currently at 6.2 percent, with a slight decline to 4.1 percent in November 2023 from 4.9 percent in the previous month.
Cagayan Valley led among the 17 administrative regions with the lowest inflation at 2.4 percent, down from 3.4 percent last month. DEF