Table A. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates for Zamboanga Peninsula and Zamboanga City, All Items
In Percent   
(2018=100)

Zamboanga City
Headline inflation in Zamboanga City further accelerated to 6.5 percent in July 2024 from 
5.0 percent in June 2024. This brings the city’s average inflation from January 2024 to 
July 2024 to 4.3 percent. In July 2023, inflation rate was lower at 2.3 percent. 
(Table A and Figure 1).

1.1 Main Drivers to the Upward Trend of the Headline Inflation

The main driver on the uptrend of the overall inflation in July 2024 was brought about by the annual increment of the commodity group Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages recorded at 7.5 percent from 4.9 percent noted in June 2024. Another commodity group that also contributed to the acceleration of inflation was the indices of Housing, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels at 9.5 percent inflation rate from the previous 8.4 percent recorded in June 2024.Likewise, the commodity group, Transport, registered 2.6 percent inflation rate which was higher compared to the 1.9 percent in June 2024.

In addition, the other commodity groups which exhibited higher inflation rates for the month July 2024 were the following:
a.    Health, 3.2 percent from 2.4 percent;
b.    Personal Care, Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 2.5 percent from 2.4 percent
c.    Recreation, Sport, and Culture, 2.6 percent from 2.0 percent

On the other hand, the following commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rates

a.    Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 4.6 percent
b.    Clothing and Footwear, 1.8 percent
c.    Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, 1.9 percent
d.    Information and Communication, 1.0 percent
e.    Education Services, 18.9 percent
f.    Restaurants and Accommodation Services, 3.2 percent
g.    Financial Services, 0.0 percent

1.2 Main Contributors to the Headline Inflation

The top three commodity groups contributing to the July 2024 overall inflation were the following:
a.    Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 52.6 percent share or 3.4 percentage points;
b.    Housing, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels with 30.8 percent share and 2.0 percentage points 
c.    Education Services with 3.8 percent share and 0.6 percentage points

Table B. Year-on- Year Inflation Rates in Zamboanga City, All Items
In Percent
January 2020 – July 2024
(2018=100)

Table C. Year-On-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups in Zamboanga City for all Income Households, 2018=100

In contrast, lower year-on-year growth rates were observed in the indices of the following food commodity in July 2024:
a.    Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 2.5 percent from 3.1 percent
b.    Oils and Fats (0.5) percent from (0.2) percent
c.    Sugar, confectionery and desserts, (5.7) percent from (5.5) percent

The food index, Flour, Bread and other Bakery Products, Pasta Products and other Cereals, retained its previous month’s inflation rate at 5.5 percent.

2.2 Main Contributors to the Food Inflation

Food inflation shared 52.3 percentage points to the overall inflation in July 2024. The top three food groups in terms of contribution to the food inflation during the month were the following:

a.    Cereal and cereal products with 38.2 percentage share and 2.5 percentage points
b.    Vegetable, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with 4.8 percentage share and  0.3 percentage points

Note: CPIs and inflation rates by province and selected city are posted at the PSA website (http://openstat.psa.gov.ph/).

MEWCHUN WS. PAMARAN
Regional Director

MFET/mgcn