The poorest 30 percent of Filipinos had to shell out more money in the third quarter due to the increase in the price of food items, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Data from the PSA showed the year-on-year (YoY) inflation experienced by the bottom 30 percent of income households increased to 3 percent in the third quarter.
“The annual growth of the food alone index moved up at a faster pace of 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2017. It was pegged at 2.7 percent in the previous quarter and 1.6 percent during the same quarter in 2016,” the PSA said.
The inflation seen by the poorest Filipinos was higher than the annual rate in the previous quarter, which was recorded at 2.7 percent, and in the same period in 2016 at 1.5 percent.
PSA data showed the inflation experienced by the poorest Filipino households was the highest in the past 10 quarters since the first quarter of 2015, when it reached 3.1 percent.
In the July-to-September period, the highest inflation was seen in fish at 8.3 percent followed by meat at 4.9 percent; corn, 2.2 percent; rice, 1.6 percent; and cereal preparations, 1.3 percent.
However, the YoY increases in the indices of eggs and fruits and vegetables slowed to 2.7 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.
Also, the miscellaneous food index exhibited an annual drop of 0.1 percent, while that of the dairy-products index remained at 0.9 percent.
Meanwhile, the poorest households in Metro Manila experienced the highest rate of inflation nationwide at 4.8 percent in the third quarter, from 1.6 percent in 2016.
This was attributed to the hike in the prices of housing and repairs, services and miscellaneous expenditures.
Slower annual increases were noted in the indices of food beverage and tobacco (FBT) at 5.1 percent; clothing, 1.9 percent; and fuel, light and water (FLW), 5.7 percent.
“An annual decrease of 0.3 percent was noted in rice index during the quarter. Moreover, slower annual growths were recorded in the indices of [other] food groups,” the PSA added.
These were fruits and vegetables at 12.1 percent; fish at 8.9 percent; dairy products, 5.2 percent; meat, 4.6 percent; and eggs, 1.3 percent.
In areas outside of the National Capital Region, inflation increased 3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, from 1.4 percent.
The increase was largely due to higher FLW, FBT and housing and repair prices. Other commodity groups that saw prices increase were services, clothing and miscellaneous expenditures.
Poor Filipinos are sensitive to the prices of food. This is because the weight of food in the basket of goods used for the computation of the inflation experienced by the poorest 30 percent is 70 percent against 39 percent for all the households.
Monitoring the movement of prices, particularly for the bottom 30 percent, addresses indicators under Global Goals or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2, which the Philippines adopted this year.
The United Nations said Goal 1 aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere while Goal 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
The SDGs are composed of 17 goals and 169 targets that need to be achieved by 2030. The set of goals were adopted by 189 countries in September 2015.
Image credits: Alysa Salen