YEAR-ON-YEAR INFLATION RATES

The headline inflation or the annual rate of change on the prices of goods and services in the market basket in General Santos City decreased to 2.9 percent in January 2024 from last month’s inflation at 3.9 percent. This was lower than the regional level at 4.1 percent and higher than the national level at 2.8 percent. This was also lower by 4 percentage points from a year ago of the same month at 6.9 percent. The average inflation or the year-to-date inflation of the city was recorded at 2.9 percent.

The main contributors to the city’s downtrend inflation for the month of January 2024 are as follows:

a)  Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, from 6.9% to 4.7%;
b) Transport, from -2.1% to -3.0%;
c)  Health, from 3.2% to 2.6%;
d) Clothing and footwear, from 3.5% to 3.2%;
e) Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, from 3.8% to 3.6%;
f)  Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, from 1.6% to 1.4%; 
g) Recreation, sport, and culture, from 3.1% to 2.9%

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages contributed 85.8% to this downtrend; Transport at 9.3%, and Health at 2.1%, are among the major contributors for the month of January 2024.

On the contrary, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels increases this January 2024, from -0.4% to -0.3%.

The rest of the commodity groups: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Information and Communication, Education Services, Restaurants and Accommodation Services and Financial Services maintained their previous month’s inflation rates (Table B).

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages decreased from 6.9 percent in December 2023 to 4.7 percent in January 2024.

The commodity groups that contributed to the decrease in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages were Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses at -17.9 percent from -6.4 percent; Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 4.6 percent from 7.4 percent and Fish and other seafood at 2.0 percent from 3.9 percent. Also, lower inflation rates were observed in Fruits and nuts at 5.6 percent from 10.0 percent; Milk, other dairy products and eggs at 11.1 percent from 12.2 percent; Cocoa drinks at 3.9 percent from 10.1 percent; Soft drinks at 3.9 percent from 10.1 percent; Ready-made food and other food products at 0.9 percent from 1.4 percent; Fruit and vegetable juices at 1.0 percent from 1.9 percent; and Tea, mate and other plant products for infusion at 5.8 percent from 7.1 percent.

Please see Table C for the year-on-year inflation on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group in percent. 

Definition of Terms

Base Period/Year - this refers to the period, usually a year, at which the index number/points is set to 100. It is the point of index number series.

Consumer Price Index - the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year

Inflation Rate - the annual rate of change or year-on-year change in the CPI expressed in percent

Market Basket - refers to a sample of goods and services that are commonly purchased and bought by an average Filipino household

Weights - a system that considers the relevance of the components of the index