Photo by Hamdan Badrudin/BIO
COTABATO CITY–Bangsamoro region maintained the lowest inflation rate record in the Philippines at 6.3 percent last December 2022, according to a report released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-BARMM) on Tuesday, January 10, 2023.
Both Region-12 or SOCCSKSARGEN and Region-4A or CALABARZON areas logged as second lowest inflation rate at 7.1 percent, Region 5 or BICOL Region as third lowest inflation rate at 7.2 percent, while Region-6 or Western Visayas Region got the highest inflation rate at 10.5 percent.
PSA-BARMM Officer-in-Charge Chief Statistical Specialist Edward Donald Eloja said that the region’s inflation rate at 6.3 percent last December 2022 was slightly high compared to 6.0 percent in November 2022.
“The slight increase of an inflation rate to 0.3% in December compared to the previous month in the Bangsamoro region was primarily due to the increase in growths in the indices of two (2) commodity groups such as food and non-alcoholic beverages at 8.5 percent in December compared to 7.6 percent in November; and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 3.2 percent compared to 2.9 percent in November,” Eloja explained.
“BARMM has recorded an average inflation rate of 4.1 percent in the entire year of 2022 while 1.9 percent average inflation rate compared in the year 2021,” he added.
Among the provinces in BARMM, Lanao Del Sur still recorded the highest inflation rate in December 2022 at 8.7 percent followed by Tawi-Tawi at 7.3 percent, Basilan at 6.6 percent, Sulu at 5.4 percent, and Maguindanao at 4.8 percent.
Tuesday’s report of PSA-BARMM also mentioned that Cotabato City slightly climbs its inflation rate to 5.3 percent in December compared to the 4.2 percent inflation rate in the previous month of November.
The headline inflation rate in the entire Philippines slightly rose to 8.1 percent in December 2022 from 8.0 percent compared to the previous month of November 2022.
Meanwhile, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Senior Research Specialist Zarinah Aligsao said, “the increase in inflation rate was primarily due to external factors, including the ‘War in Ukraine’ and internal factors due to high demand of commodities because of the yuletide season.” (Kasan Usop, Jr./BIO)
