The inflation rate in Camiguin continued its downward trend to 1.3 percent in April 2025

The inflation rate in Camiguin decelerated further to 1.3 percent in April 2025 from the 2.4 percent posted in March 2025. This is the lowest inflation rate since May 2020, which recorded a 0.7 percent inflation rate. The registered inflation rate represents a significant drop of 2.8 percentage points compared to the posted rate of 4.1 percent in April 2024. The province's year-to-date inflation rate is at 2.2 percent. (See Figure 1)

Source: Survey of Retail Prices of Commodities for the Generation of CPI, PSA

All provinces in Northern Mindanao reported a decrease in inflation rates in April 2025. Among them, Lanao del Norte and Bukidnon stood out with significant declines, as their inflation rates dropped to 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Additionally, the provinces of Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental also saw slower inflation, with their rates easing to 0.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 presents the annual inflation rates of the provinces in Region X in April 2025.

Source: Survey of Retail Prices of Commodities for the Generation of CPI, PSA

The slowing down in the province’s inflation in April 2025 was primarily caused by the declines in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 0.7 percent and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 2.8 percent. Contributing to the slower rate were the lower annual increases in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 5.7 percent from 5.9 percent, transport with 12.9 percent from 15.5 percent, information and communication with zero percent from 1.0 percent, and recreation, sport, and culture with 0.5 percent from 1.7 percent.

On the contrary, the following commodity groups posted faster rate of increases:

• Clothing and footwear, 5.0 percent;

• Health, 2.9 percent; and

• Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.4 percent.

On the other hand, furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance, education services, restaurants and accommodation services, and financial services maintained the same inflation rate as in March 2025. (See Table 1)

Table 1. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Group,
Camiguin (2018 = 100)

Source, Survey of Retail Prices of Commodities for the Generation of CPI PSA

The deflation of food in April 2025 was primarily brought about by the decline of heavily weighted rice at 7.6 percent. Declines were also registered in cereals and cereals products (5.9%) and fish and other seafood (2.5%).

Moreover, slower rate of increases was noted in the following food items:

• Oils and fats, 3.5 percent;

• Vegetables, tubers, cooking bananas and pulses, 5.2 percent;

• Sugar, confectionery and desserts, 3.9 percent;

• Ready-made food and other food products n.e.c., 2.0 percent.

On the other hand, faster rate of increases was registered in the following food groups of:

• Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, 2.5 percent;

• Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals, 1.0 percent;

• Milk, other dairy products, and eggs, 5.4 percent; and

• Fruits and nuts, 6.1 percent. (See Table B and Table 1A)

Table B. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Food Group:
Camiguin (2018=100)

(SGD.)FRANCISCO C. GALAGAR, JR.
Chief Statistical Specialist

Technical Notes

This Special Release presents the results of the Survey of Retail Prices of Commodities and Services for the Generation of Consumer Price Index (CPI) conducted in April 2025. 

CPI

The CPI is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households for their day-to-day consumption relative to a base year.

Uses of the CPI

As an indicator, the CPI is most widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of the peso. It is a major statistical series used for economic analysis and as a government economic policy monitoring indicator.

The CPI is also used as a deflator to express value series in real terms, which is, measuring the change in actual volume of transactions by removing the effects of price changes. Another major importance of the CPI is its use as a basis to adjust wages in labor-management contracts and pensions and retirement benefits. The CPI also inputs wage adjustments through collective bargaining agreements.

Components of the CPI

1. Base Period - This is a reference date or simply a convenient benchmark to which a continuous series of index numbers can be related. Since the CPI measures the average changes in the retail prices of a fixed basket of goods, it is necessary to compare the movement in previous years back to a reference date at which the index is taken as equal to 100. The present series uses 2018 as the base year. The year 2018 was chosen as the base year because it is the year when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) was conducted. The FIES is the basis of the CPI weights.
2. Market Basket - Market basket refers to a sample of thousands of varieties of goods purchased for consumption and services availed by households in the country. It was selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services purchased by the consumers.
3. Weighting System - The weighting system is a desirable system that considers the relevance of the components of the index. For the CPI, the weighting pattern uses the expenditures on various consumer items purchased by households as a proportion to total expenditures.
4. Geographic Coverage - CPI values are computed at the national, regional, and provincial levels, and for selected cities. A separate CPI for NCR is also computed.
5. Classification Standards - The 2012-based CPI series is the first in the series that used the 1999 United Nations Classification of the Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) in determining the commodity groupings of the items and services included in the market basket. The 2018-based CPI also follows the 2015 Philippine Standard Geographic Classification codes.

Inflation Rate

The inflation rate (IR) is the annual or monthly rate of change of the CPI in percent. It is interpreted in terms of the declining purchasing power of money.

Source: Retail Price Survey of Commodities for the Generation of Consumer Price Index, Philippine Statistics Authority