Table A. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates, All Items 

In Percent (2018=100)

Overall Inflation

Zamboanga del Norte's inflation rate for all-income households declined to 2.0 percent in February 2025, down from 2.5 percent in January 2025. In comparison, the inflation rate in February 2024 was much lower, recorded at just -0.5 percent (Figure 1 and Table A).

Attributes in the Downtrend of the Overall Inflation

The decrease in overall inflation in February 2025 was mainly driven by the higher annual changes in the following commodities; 

1. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels at 2.3 percent from 4.6 percent of the previous month; and
2. Transport at -0.2 percent from 0.7 of the previous month.

In addition, the following commodity groups registered lower inflation rates during the month of February 2025 were:

1. Clothing and Footwear, 3.3 percent from 3.7 percent;
2. Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, 3.5 percent from 4.3 percent;
3. Health, 4.6 percent from 4.8 percent;
4. Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 2.2 percent from 2.7 percent; and
5. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent.

In contrast, the following commodity groups registered a higher inflation rate during the month were:

1. Restaurants and Accommodation Services 11.7 percent from 11.5 percent; and
2. Information and Communication, 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the inflation rate that remained unchanged from the previous month were the following commodity groups:

1. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages;
2. Education Services;
3. Financial Services; and
4. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.

Main Contributors to the Headline Inflation

The top three commodity groups contributing to the February 2025 overall inflation was the following:

1. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 1.1 percent inflation at 26.4 percent share to the overall inflation;
2. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 2.3 percent inflation at 18.5 percent share to the overall inflation; and
3. Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 11.7 percent inflation at 21.0 percent share to the overall inflation.

Table B. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates in Zamboanga del 
Norte, All Items January 2020 to February 2025 in Percent 
(2018=100)

Top 5 Contributors in Zamboanga del Norte February 2025 Inflation:

1. Tunas, skipjack or stripe-bellied, live, fresh, chilled with 16.8 percent inflation from 15.7 percent in the previous month;
2. Restaurants, café and the like with 12.2 percent inflation from 11.8 percent in the previous month;
3. Other pelagic fish, live, fresh, chilled, or frozen with 7.6 percent inflation from -3.5 percent from the previous month;
4. Other fish, prepared or preserve with 61.1 percent inflation from 81.1 percent in the previous month; and
5. Pumpkins with 19.8 percent inflation from 13.9 percent inflation from the previous month

Table C. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates in Zamboanga del Norte,
All Items February 2024 to February 2025 by Commodity 
Group 
In Percent (2018=100)

The inflation rate for Food at the provincial level in February 2025 was reported at 1.1 percent maintaining the previous rate (Table C). Meanwhile, food inflation for the month of January 2024 was reported at 0.3 percent.

Purchasing Power of Peso

In Zamboanga del Norte, the purchasing power of peso was recorded at Php 0.80, which explains that you needed Php 125.0 for a basket of food and non-food commodities in February 2025 which only costs Php100.00 in the year 2018.

ANDRES S. TAPALES, JR.
Officer-In-Charge
(Statistical Specialist II)

Technical Notes:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) – is the measures of change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services. It is a way to measure changes in purchasing trends and inflation. 

Inflation Rate (IR) – Inflation rate refers to the annual rate of change or the year-on-year change of the CPI expressed in percentage. It is computes using the following formula;

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) = The purchasing power of peso (PPP) is a measure of the real value of the peso in a given period relative to the base period. It is computed by getting the reciprocal of the CPI and multiplying the result by 100 as follows: