Eastern Visayas sustains inflation rate decline

TACLOBAN CITY, March 10 (PNA) -– Eastern Visayas’ inflation rate continues to decline during the first two months of 2016 after it posted decade-low level last year, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) reported.

Citing the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, NEDA Regional Director Bonifacio Uy said that inflation has settled at 0.7 percent in January 2016 from 1.1 percent in December last year. The rate is way below than the 3.4 percent inflation recorded early of 2015.

Inflation, or the increase in prices of widely used goods, slowed down to its lowest level in 2015 at 1.8 percent from the lofty 7 percent rate a year earlier.

“The significant reduction is attributed to the continuous downward price movements of petroleum products in the world market and the ample supply of key food items,” Uy said.

“This is a remarkable turnaround as slower price food inflation results in higher purchasing power of peso, especially among the poor,” he added.

In 2015, Biliran provinces registered the slowest price movement at 1 percent while the fastest was in Southern Leyte at 5 percent. (PNA)
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