GUIMARAS – The inflation rate for the bottom 30 percent income households in this island province eased further to -2.7 percent in November this year from -1.3 percent in October, bringing Guimaras’ year-to-date inflation for low-income households to –0.1 percent.
“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the bottom 30 percent income households in Guimaras was recorded at 131.0 in November 2025,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said. “This means that a typical low-income Guimarasnon household needs P1,310.00 in November 2025 to purchase the same basket of goods and services worth P1,000.00 in 2018.”
The primary source of November 2025 inflation downtrend for low-income households was the slower rate of food and non-alcoholic beverages with -6.2 percent, lower than the -3.7 percent in October with 99.3 percent share.
“The slower inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages was due to the slower price movement of cereals and cereal products with -20.8 percent inflation particularly rice,” Losare said.
The second source of trend was the falling price of transport with 4.7 percent inflation from 4.9 percent rate in October 2025, contributing 0.7 percent in the November Inflation. In contrast, faster inflation rates were noted in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with -2.6 percent from -3.6 percent, and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance with 1.7 percent from 0.5 percent.
While alcoholic beverages and tobacco (10.0%), clothing and footwear (1.6%), health (3.8%), information and communication (0.0%), recreation, sport and culture (0.5%), education services (-0.8%), restaurants and accommodation services (10.5%), financial services (0.0%), and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services (0.5%) retained their previous month’s annual rates.
The top three commodity groups that significantly contributed to the overall inflation for low- income households in November 2025 were food and non-alcoholic beverages, with 142.1 percent or 3.84 percentage points contribution, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, with 10.6 percent or 0.29 percentage point. Education services also contributed 0.2 percent or 0.01 percentage point.
“Under food and non-alcoholic beverages, the decline in rice prices was identified as the major contributor to the group’s overall negative inflation. Meanwhile, the slowdown in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels was primarily attributed to lower electricity rates from various energy sources such as coal, solar, and hydro, which helped offset price increases in other commodities,” Losare said.
Meanwhile, inflation for low-income households in Western Visayas eased to –0.5 percent in November, improving from –1.4 percent in October and reflecting a continued slowdown from the 4.1 percent posted in November 2024./PN
