TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA) – For the Boholanos belonging to the bottom 30 percent income households, inflation eased to 9.8 percent in July 2024 from 10.3 percent of the previous month.
This is according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Bohol, which tracks the provincial inflation rate on a monthly basis.
PSA Bohol chief supervising statistician Jessamyne Anne Alcazaren, during the regular monthly press conference on inflation, said the figure is still higher compared to the 5.0 percent inflation experienced by the bottom 30 percent income households in July 2023.
PSA Bohol’s monthly inflation tracking for this select sector showed that in January 2024, the inflation rate was 9.3 percent, and then went up as high as 10.6 percent in April and May, before dipping to 10.3 percent in June and 9.9 percent in July.
The PSA credits the deceleration of the July 2023 inflation for the bottom 30% income households to the inflation deceleration for June 2024, which were largely to lower inflation in restaurants, accommodation services to nearly half from 13.8 percent in June to 7.2 percent in July 2024, food and non-alcoholic beverages from 9.9 percent in June 2023 to 9.7 percent in 20203 as well as alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 4.2 percent inflation in June 2023 to July 2024.
Restaurants and accommodation services own up to 74.6 percent of the share to the inflation downtrend, food and non-alcoholic beverages taking up 22.5 percent of the inflation share, and alcoholic beverages and tobacco with a 2.9 percent share in the downtrend.
PSA also identified the provincial contributors to July 2024 as rice, which registered a decreasing but still a two-digit inflation rate at 23.9 percent from 24.9 percent, the commodity earning up the biggest share of 52.5 percent of the bottom 30 percent income households.
After rice is wood fuel, including pellets and briquettes, at double digit still and stayed constant at 23.4 percent.
Restaurants, cafes, and the like showed promising inflation rates from 13.7 percent to 7.2 percent, contributing to 4.1 percent of the household spending.
The overall inflation rate in Bohol eased from 5.2 percent in June to 4.9 percent in July, caused by lower inflation rates in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels from 2.8 to 0.9 percent, restaurants and accommodation services at 4.7 from 7.0 percent last
June and food and non-alcoholic beverages from 8.2 to 8.0 percent in July, according to Alcazaren.
This brings the average inflation rate here from January to July at 4.4 percent. (RAHC/PIA Bohol)
