Inflation in the province of Iloilo accelerated in July due to faster jumps in the prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-6).
Last month’s inflation, or the rate of increase in the prices of basic goods and services, surged to 9.3 percent from 7.5 percent in June and 1.8 percent in the same month a year ago.
Chief Statistical Specialist Jerry Dulutan of the Provincial Statistical Office said the main source of the upswing came from housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which accounted for 53.6 percent of the acceleration.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages came in second with 41.6 percent share to the uptrend in inflation, followed by education services with 2.2 percent share.
In terms of contribution to overall inflation, food and non-alcoholic beverages had the largest share at 34.3 percent, followed by transport (18.8 percent), and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (16.8 percent).
Rice emerged as the top contributor to the province’s inflation with 2.1 percentage points (ppt), followed by electricity (1.4 ppt), restaurants, cafe and the like (1.3 ppt), gasoline (0.5 ppt), and other passenger transport by road (0.5 ppt).IMT
