TAMER INFLATION. A vendor is seen tending her vegetable stall at Mega Q Mart in Quezon City in this undated photo. Inflation in the Calabarzon region was kept to a moderate 3.4 percent in December 2023 amid a decline in the prices of vegetables, tubers and plantains. (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)
LIPA CITY, Batangas – Inflation in the Calabarzon region was kept to a moderate 3.4 percent in December 2023 due mainly to the stable prices of some heavily-weighted food items despite the high demand during the Christmas season.
This represents a notable decline from the 3.8 percent posted in November, and a substantial drop from the 7.1 percent registered in December 2022, when the country was reeling from an unprecedented surge in the prices of onion.
Charito Armonia, director of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Region 4A, said a major contributor to the easing of price pressures in the five-province region was the rollback in the prices of vegetables and related items, which altogether posted negative 13.4 percent inflation.
Meat products also registered -1.9 percent inflation in both December and November, while oils and fats posted -9.6 percent and -10.8 percent inflation, respectively, during the last two months of 2023.
“We were expecting higher inflation in vegetables, tubers and plantains because of a demand surge during Christmas. But it turned out that supply was really high last month… a sharp contrast to the shortage we experienced (in onion and other produce) in December 2022. The decline in vegetable prices really had a big impact on overall inflation,” she told reporters during an online press conference on Wednesday.
Armonia said that among key food items, rice stood out to exacerbate inflation in the last two months of 2023, accelerating 15.3 percent in December and 11.7 percent in November.
She said lower power costs contributed notably to the deceleration of inflation in Calabarzon towards yearend.
Electricity bills grew by a miniscule 0.7 percent, while the price of liquefied petroleum gas for cooking grew by only 5 percent in December.
These figures represent a sharp decline from the 8.8 percent and 7.8 percent the two commodities posted respectively in November, she said in her report.
Breaking down Calabarzon by province, Armonia said Quezon posted the lowest December inflation at 1.5 percent, while Batangas registered the highest at 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Laguna posted 2.4 percent; Cavite, 3.8 percent; and Rizal, 3.9 percent.
During the same webinar, Carmel Matabang, assistant regional director at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in Calabarzon, said the insights gleaned from last month’s inflation numbers will guide economic managers in formulating policies aimed at further taming price pressures.
The NEDA has reported that in 2023, the country posted its lowest inflation numbers in December, a month when price pressures are historically strongest due to increased demand during the holidays.
It said the Philippines’ overall inflation further slowed down to 3.9 percent in December 2023 from 4.1 percent in November, bringing the full-year average inflation rate to 6 percent. (PNA)
