CONSUMER GOODS. Food items sold at a supermarket in Bacolod City in this undated photo. In August, the inflation rate for all income households in the city eased to 5.7 percent from 6.6 percent in July, the Philippine Statistics Authority - Negros Occidental said in a report on Friday (Sept. 8, 2023). (PNA-Bacolod file photo)
BACOLOD CITY – The inflation rate in this city eased to 5.7 percent in August from 6.6 percent in July, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) - Negros Occidental on Friday night showed.
“The decline is brought by slight annual decreases of prices in some commodity groups,” OIC chief statistical specialist John Campomanes said in the summary inflation report and consumer price index (CPI) for all income households.
These include food and non-alcoholic beverages; alcoholic beverages and tobacco; clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; recreation, sports, and culture; restaurants and accommodation services; and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services.
In August 2022, the inflation rate in this city was at 6.3 percent, the report also showed.
Last month, food inflation here declined to 8 percent from 8.3 percent in July while non-food inflation decreased as well to 4.2 percent from the previous month’s 5.4 percent.
Based on the PSA figures, the inflation rate in Bacolod, one of the two highly urbanized cities in Western Visayas, has steadily declined from 12.1 percent in January to 11.2 percent in February, 8.7 percent in March and April, 7.5 percent in May, and 6.7 percent in June.
Meanwhile, the inflation rate in Negros Occidental slightly increased to 7.9 percent in August from 7.6 percent in the previous month due to the increase in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport items.
The CPI provides a general measure of the changes in average retail prices of commodities bought by a specific group of consumers in a given area and a given period.
Inflation is the annual rate of change or the year-on-year change of the CPI expressed in percent and is interpreted in terms of the declining purchasing power of money. (PNA)
