Southern Leyte recorded the biggest drop, from 0.3 percent IR in August 2019 to 1.9 percent deflation in September 2019.

The PSA, headquarters in Quezon City. The agency said the provinces of Eastern Samar, Leyte, Samar and Southern Leyte registered lower inflation rates in September 2019

TACLOBAN CITY — The Eastern Visayas region recorded a 0.1 percent deflation or a general decline in prices of goods and services in September 2019. This was the slowest pace it has so far registered since March 2016, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regional office.

The PSA report said this figure is 0.7 percentage point lower as compared to the 0.6 percent inflation rate (IR) a month ago, and 6.6 percentage points lower compared with the 6.5 percent IR recorded in the same period last year.

The regional inflation rate is 1.0 percentage point lower than the 0.9 percent national average in September 2019.

According to PSA, the provinces of Eastern Samar, Leyte, Samar and Southern Leyte registered lower IR in September 2019 compared with their figures in the previous month. Southern Leyte recorded the biggest drop, from 0.3 percent IR in August 2019 to 1.9 percent deflation in September 2019.

On the other hand, Biliran registered a 2.2 percentage points increase, from 1.7 percent deflation in August 2019 to 0.5 percent IR during the said month.

Northern Samar inched up by 0.2 percentage point, from 1.8 percent deflation during the previous month to 1.6 percent deflation in September 2019.

Samar and Southern Leyte posted the lowest with a 1.9 percent deflation. Leyte, meanwhile, recorded the highest IR during the month in review at 0.6 percent.

Economists believe that deflation is usually associated with a contraction in the supply of money and credit, but they said the lower prices could also be the result of increased productivity and technological improvements.

Majority of the commodity groups in the region exhibited lower IR in September 2019 compared with their rates in August 2019, or had retained their previous month’s rates.

The heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group registered the biggest drop of 1.9 percentage points, from 0.3 percent deflation in August 2019 to 2.2 percent deflation during the month in review.

Lower IR were noted in majority of the food items, with rice registering the highest decrease of 3.7 percentage points pushing its deflation to 8.5 percent in September 2019 from 4.8 percent deflation a month ago. Bread and cereals, fruits, and fish indices continued to register deflations at 6.4 percent, 5.2 percent, and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Transport commodity group slowed down to 1.1 percent in September from 2.2 percent in August 2019. PSA said attributed this to the deflation recorded in the index for the operation of personal transport equipment.

The health and clothing and footwear commodity groups eased down by 0.1 percentage point each, settling at 3.2 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels picked up by 1.1 percentage points, from 2.0 percent deflation in August 2019 to 0.9 percent deflation in September 2019.

Inflation rate for recreation and culture was recorded at 2.2 percent in September, an increase of 0.9 percentage point from its 1.3 percent IR in August 2019.

IR for furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house commodity group likewise went up by 0.4 percentage point, pushing its IR to 6.3 percent in September 2019.

The rest of the commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rate.

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of the region remained at P0.80 in September 2019. This PPP implies that P100 in 2012, which is the base year, is worth P80 only in September 2019.

Samar posted a P0.01 increase in PPP compared with its figure in August 2019, while Biliran’s PPP weakened by P0.03. The rest of the provinces sustained their PPP last month.

Leyte and Southern Leyte recorded the strongest PPP at P0.82. Biliran ranked second at P0.81, followed by Eastern Samar at P0.78. Northern Samar and Samar posted the weakest PPP at P0.77.