The province of Southern Leyte has maintained its place among the six provinces in the Eastern Visayas region, having the lowest increase in the prices of goods and services in March 2026.
Compared with the other five provinces in the region, Southern Leyte showed the lowest inflation rate in March at 2.9 percent, and the two previous months this year, records at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) provincial office showed.
According to Elissa Carbonilla, supervising statistical specialist at the PSA provincial office, this was lower than the national and regional average.
However, the province’s inflation rate was higher than in January and February 2026, recorded at 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Next to Southern Leyte last March 2026 was Leyte, with 3.8 percent inflation rate, Eastern Samar with 4.3 percent, Biliran and Northern Samar both at 5.7 percent, and Samar province registering the highest inflation rate at 7.5 percent.
The country’s inflation rate for the same month was recorded at 4.1 percent, while the average for the Eastern Visayas region was 4.8 percent, Carbonilla said.
The surge in the inflation rate for the province of Southern Leyte in March 2026, which almost doubled the previous month of February, was caused by the acceleration of three main contributing sources.
These included food commodities and non-alcoholic beverages, increasing to 1.8 percent from -0.1 percent in February; the transport sector, up 9.4 percent from -0.9 percent; and Information and Communication services at 2.1 percent from 1.6 percent, Carbonilla reported.
(With report from PIA)
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