GUIMARAS – This island province saw near-zero inflation as the first quarter of 2025 wrapped up, with the province’s headline inflation rate easing to just 0.2% in March from 0.6% in February, marking a significant drop compared to the 7.2% rate in March 2024.
This brought the average inflation for the first quarter down to 1.2%, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“The downtrend in the overall inflation in March 2025 was primarily influenced by the decreased year-on-year price change in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at a turnaround -0.7 percent during the month, from 0.7 percent in February 2025”, Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.
She added: “The slower annual price change on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 0.9 percent in March 2025 from 2.1 percent in the previous month and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services at 1.7 percent from 1.8 percent a month ago also contributed to the slower inflation rate.”
Food and non-alcoholic beverages groups shared 78.3 percent of the downtrend of March inflation, while housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services sliced 21.3 and 0.5 percent, respectively.
“The slower inflation in March 2025 caused by food and non-alcoholic beverages was mainly pushed by the slow-moving price movement of rice with -4.5% inflation from 4.9%, while the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services were mainly pressed by the electricity from all sources (coal, solar, hydro, etc.) with -2.1 percent from 4.8 percent, and jewelry with 0.0 percent inflation from 14.3 % inflation” Losare said.
In contrast, five of the 13 commodity groups recorded quicker inflation rates in March against February:
* alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 7.9% from 4.8%;
* furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance, 0.2% from -0.1%;
* health, -0.3% from -1.0%;
* transport, -0.1% from -0.8%; and
* restaurants and accommodation services, -3.2% from -8.0%.
Moreover, the overall inflation rate last month was primarily influenced by two major commodity groups: alcoholic beverages and tobacco, with a 206.2% contribution to the province’s inflation rate, or 0.41 percentage points, with the notable increase primarily driven by a significant 10.3% surge in spirits and liquors, impacting overall alcoholic beverages and tobacco costs.
Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels followed closely with a 64.8% impact on the overall inflation of Guimaras, or 0.13 percentage points, , with a noteworthy bearing from wood and bamboo charcoal —showing an inflation rate of 7.2%.
From March 2024 to March 2025, inflation rates across provinces of Western Visayas showed a general downward trend, with most areas experiencing their peak between April and July 2024.
Guimaras recorded the highest inflation at 7.2% in March 2024, while Antique peaked at 6.7% in April. Aklan also noted a high of 6.4% in July. However, by March 2025, significant declines were observed across all provinces, with Antique even entering deflation at -0.1% and Guimaras dropping to just 0.2%. Iloilo maintained relatively stable inflation throughout the period, ending at 4.2%.
“The inflation rate is the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) derived by computing the indices relative to the same period in the previous year or month, and currently, Guimaras posted a 133.2 CPI, translating that a typical Guimarasnon household needs 1,332.00 pesos in March 2025 to purchase a basket of goods and services worth 1000 pesos in 2018,” Losare clarified.
She also said: “The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in Guimaras retained at 0.75 in March 2025. This indicates that one peso in 2018 is now worth 0.75 centavos.”/PN
