The Davao Occidental annual headline inflation continued its uptrend as it moved up further to 8.1 percent in July 2022, from 7.0 percent in June 2022. This is the highest recorded inflation since March 2019. With this month’s inflation, Davao Occidental average inflation from January to July 2022 stood at 4.1 percent. In July 2021, inflation rate was lower at 2.8 percent. (Table A and Figure 1)

The main source of the upward trend of the July 2022 inflation was the higher annual growth rate in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 8.3 percent, from 6.3 percent in the previous month. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco index followed with 14.6 percent annual growth, from 12.5 percent in June 2022. Also contributing to the uptrend in the overall inflation during the period were the higher annual increments in the indices of the following commodity groups:

1. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 7.3 percent;
2. Recreation, sport and culture, 1.8 percent; and
3. Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 0.9 percent.

On the other hand, the following commodity groups showed downtrend index. These are transport at 25.1 percent from 25.8 in June 2022 and health at 3.2 percent from 3.4 percent in previous month and clothing and footwear at 0.9 percent from 1.0 percent in June 2022. The rest of the commodity groups either retained their previous month’s inflation rates or had zero percent annual growths. (Table B)

For food and non-alcoholic beverages index, it increased further to 8.3 percent from 6.3 percent in the previous month. In July 2021, food and non-alcoholic beverages index was lower at 3.0 percent.

The annual growth rate of sugar, confectionery and desserts index went up further to 53.2 percent during the month, from 30.2 percent in the previous month. In addition, double-digit growth rate was observed in the oils and fats at 32.1 percent; fruits and nut at 14.2 and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 13.5 percent.

The following food groups exhibited higher annual increments during the month:

1. Milk, other dairy products, and eggs, 9.3 percent;
2. Fish and other seafood, 5.8 percent; and
3. Cereals and cereal products, 4.6 percent.

On the other hand, the vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses index had a lower annual uptick at 8.2 percent from 21.4 percent in June 2022. (Table C)

In addition, the July 2022 Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) in Davao Occidental dropped to 0.86 from 0.87 in June 2022. (Figure 2)

Technical Notes: