The Davao Occidental annual headline inflation continued to move at a faster pace of 7.0 percent in June 2022, from 5.1 percent in May 2022. This is the highest recorded inflation since May 2019. Inflation in June 2021 was lower at 2.5 percent. The average inflation for the first semester of the year stood at 3.5 percent. (Table A and Figure 1)

The uptrend of inflation in the province was mainly brought about by the higher annual increase in the index for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.3 percent, from 4.1 percent in the previous month; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 7.0 percent, from 4.9 percent in May 2022; transport at 25.8 percent from 23.2 percent in previous month and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at 0.8 percent from 0.2 percent in May 2022.

Meanwhile, the following commodity groups showed downtrend index. These are alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 12.5 percent from 12.6 in May 2022 and health at 3.4 percent from 3.6 percent in previous month. 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 6.3 percent from 4.1 percent in the previous month. In June 2021, food and non-alcoholic beverages index was lower at 2.5 percent.

The annual growth rate of the oils and fats index went up further to 31.8 percent during the month, from 29.7 percent in the previous month. In addition, double-digit growth rate was observed in sugar, confectionery and desserts at 30.2 percent; vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses at 21.4 percent; fruits and nut at 14.2 and meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 10.9 percent.

Technical Notes:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) - The CPI is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year.

Inflation Rate (IR) - The inflation rate is the annual rate of change, or the year-on-year change of the CPI expressed in percent. Inflation is interpreted in terms of declining purchasing power of money.

Headline Inflation - measures changes in the cost of living based on movements in the prices of a specified basket of major commodities. It refers to the annual rate of change or the year-on-year change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) - The purchasing power of the peso shows how much the peso in the base period is worth in the current period. It is computed as the reciprocal of the CPI for the period under review multiplied by 100