Ilocos Region’s inflation rate drops to 2.3% in December

ILOCOS NORTE, Philippines – Inflation eased to 2.3% in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s home region in December, the lowest for the entire year of 2023, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the Ilocos Region on Monday, January 8.

“The inflation rate of the Ilocos Region decreased from 2.9% in November 2023 to 2.3% in December 2023, lower by 0.6 percentage points,” the PSA said.

The headline inflation rate in the region peaked at 9.3% in January which was followed by a steady six-month downward trend.

The region saw an increase in August but began to decrease in the last three months of 2023 to 3.7%, the PSA data showed.

Overall, the average inflation in the Ilocos Region for 2023 was 5.1%, lower by 0.8 from the 5.9% recorded in 2022, the PSA said.

The rate of price increases slowed down in a broad range of products which included food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 7.2% to 5.5%), housing, water, electric gas (from -5.1% to -5.5%); furnishings and household equipment (from 6.6% to 6.4%), health (from 2.9% to 2.0%), and recreation, sport and culture (from 2.3% to 1.3%).

The holidays which mostly took over in December saw an increase in prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 7.4% to 7.6%), transport (from -1.3% to 1.2%), and personal care (from 4.0% to 4.1%).

“The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rate or had zero percent annual growths,” the PSA noted.

Food inflation in the region continued to slow down in December from 7.5% to 5.7%. In 2022, food inflation was twice as high at 10.2%.

What contributed to the drop in the prices of food included meat (from 0.2% to -0.6%), fish and other seafood (from 11.7% to 9.5%), oils and fats (from -0.2% to -2.3%), fruits and nuts (from 14.6% to 9.2%), vegetables (from -0.3% to -15.5%), and sugar (from -2.9% to -4.0%).

Prices among cereal products climbed from 16.0% to 19.3% in December. It was relatively higher compared to 3.2% during the same period in 2022.

Those falling in the category saw a tick in prices, including rice (from 16.2% to 19.5%), corn (from 0.4% to 2.5%), and flour, bread, and other bakery products (from 7.5% to 7.7%), the PSA data showed.

All provinces in the region reported lower inflation rates compared to the levels of the previous year. In 2023, Pangasinan recorded 2.7%, down from 8.5%, La Union reported 4.1% compared to 4.9%, Ilocos Sur experienced a decrease to -1.6% from 11.0%, and Ilocos Norte, where Marcos Jr. once served as governor, registered 1.2%, a decline from 8.9%. – Rappler.com