Once again, Eastern Visayas consumers are finding it harder to budget their incomes, as inflation rates in the region zoomed up last July.
Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in the region placed the region's inflation rate at 8.3 percent last July, higher than the 7 percent reported the previous month.
Officials said the uptrend was primarily brought by the higher inflation rate in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 9.6 percent during the month from 5.4 percent in June 2026.
Another major contributor was the 7.7-percent increase in food inflation in July from 6.7 percent a month earlier.
"The uptrend in the regional food IR in July 2026 was mainly driven by the faster IR in rice at 20.4 percent during the month from 16.7 percent in June 2026. The higher IR of fish and other seafood at 8.2 percent from 6.9 percent also contributed to the uptrend of the regional food inflation,” PSA Region 8 chief statistical specialist Mae Almonte said in a press briefing.
Among the provinces, Samar posted the highest rate at 13.3 percent, up from 10.2 percent in the previous month.
Biliran’s inflation rate is also higher at 12 percent in July, up from 11 percent in August.
Northern Samar’s rate also shot up to 8.5 percent during the same period from 5.0 percent. Eastern Samar’s inflation rate also rose to 8.2 percent in July from negative 5.8 percent in June.
The province of Leyte logged a slight increase in inflation rate from 6.0 percent in June to 6.3 percent in July.
Of the six provinces in the region, only Southern Leyte registered a drop in inflation rate to 8.5 percent from 8.8 percent in the past two months.
Meanwhile, Tacloban, the lone highly urbanized city in the region, also recorded a decrease in inflation rate at 4.1 percent during the month, lower than its 5.0 percent inflation rate the previous month.
(With report from PNA)
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