TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—There was not much movement in the price of food in Bohol last month, after a 1.6 percent inflation during the Christmas season in 2024, according to price increase monitoring by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
During the January Inflation dissemination by the PSA, which was held at the PSA at the third floor of Galeria Luisa Mall, Provincial Statistician Jessamyne Anne Alcazaren said that from 1.6 percent in December 2024, food inflation in Bohol further eased to -2.2 percent at the beginning of the year.
PSA credits this to the slower yearly crawl of prices in cereals and cereal products, possibly due to the remaining stocks after the harvest season.
Cereals and cereal products top-billed by rice had an over-all -5.8 percent increment from 2.5 percent in December 2024, Alcazaren said.
For rice alone, it pegged an inflation rate of -6.9 percent from 3.1 percent in December.
Meanwhile, corn, of which the Department of Agriculture and the Provincial Government is now heavily supporting its production ended with a -5.9 percent in January over its -5.3 percent last Christmas season.
For the bottom 30 percent of Boholanos, this is already a heave of relief as the Christmas spending had a seamless follow through with food prices behaving well.
With rice already assured in the family, the next relief came from fish and other seafood which had a good price stability from -0.8 to -1.3 percent.
And to complement that, even meat and other parts of slaughtered animals went in the band wagon with 3.3 percent inflation in December to 3.0 percent in January.
Milk and other dairy products, and eggs which form the good source of proteins for Bohol’s bottom 30 percent and even the middle class, also played well with -1.1 percent price stability rate from 1.4 percent last December.
To complete the fare, Boholanos had a good price for fruits and nuts which had a 10.4 percent in December, perhaps owing to the ancient tradition of fruits to welcome the new year, to a good 0.3 percent.
Add to that sugar, confectionery and desserts which registered a -0.3 percent inflation in December to -0.6 percent, Alcazaren pointed out.
True enough, mainly influencing the well-behaving food inflation, which owns up -32.1 percent or -0.87 percent points to the total inflation in January 2025 are rice with 102.6 percent share, fish and other seafood with 9.9 percent share and vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, with 6.3 percent share. (PIABohol)
