BARMM has lowest inflation rate

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) announced that the June 2025 inflation rate of the Bangsamoro region is -0.9 percent, remaining as the country’s lowest inflation rate.

BARMM-PSA regional director Engr. Akan Tula said yesterday that PSA revealed its data to BARMM on 11 July, showing a slight increase in the region’s inflation rate compared to last May’s -1.6 percent.

Tula said the data also showed that the headline inflation rate in the Philippines has increased to a record high of 1.4 percent in June from 1.3 percent in May.

Tula attributed the slight acceleration in the region’s inflation rate to two major contributors:  food and alcoholic beverages, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, although the area still recorded a deflationary trend.

He emphasized that the top five commodities that contributed to June’s rate are rice, gasoline, cassava, cane sugar, spices, culinary herbs and seeds.

Camella de Vera Dacanay, the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority’s (BPDA) Macro-Economic Planning Division chief, shared that continuous negative inflation will greatly affect production.

She urged the Bangsamoro government to re-examine the Bangsamoro ministries, offices and agencies’ development priorities to support the business sector.

Additionally, she said the government could fund more infrastructure projects that would generate more jobs, enabling an increased workforce, to reduce the effect of deflation.

Dr. Gregorio Baccay III, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Cotabato acting area director, explained that while deflation increases consumers’ purchasing power as prices fall, extended periods of deflation severely impact producers.

“Deflation becomes detrimental if sustained. Businesses expecting weaker future demand and lower prices postponed investments and delayed hiring and expansion plans, increasing the likelihood of layoffs or production cuts,” Baccay said.