The annual price change of 35.7 percent in vegetable commodity groups, including tubers, plantains, and cooking bananas, propelled food inflation rate in May 2022 to move quicker to 6.9 percent from a 5.5 percent in April 2022.
The latest food inflation rate is also 9.2 percentage points faster than the –2.3 percent inflation in May 2021, based on the Retail Price Survey of Commodities for the Generation of Consumer Price Index of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Other heavily weighted food items in the top three food groups that pushed the year-on-year price increments in food items were: Rice (4.3%); and Fish and other seafood (9.5%) inflation, respectively.
Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals (11.8%); Oils and fats (8.2%); Sugar, confectionery, and desserts (13.6%); Flour, Bread and Other Bakery Products, Pasta Products, and other Cereals (4.0%) all contributed to the food inflation mark ups in May 2022.
“Other commodity groups which exhibited slower inflation were Corn with 11.3% from 12.7%, Milk, and other dairy products and eggs at 4.2% from 4.3%, Fruits and nuts at -0.8% from 10.8%, and ready-made food and other food products N.E.C. at 2.4% from 5.3% a month ago,” Provincial Statistical Officer Nelida B. Losare said.
The May 2022 food inflation got the second-highest year-on-year price changes since May 2021. (See Figure 1)
For the past thirteen months, food inflation rates showed increasing trends, beginning with -2.3 percent food inflation in May 2021 and constantly rising until it reached 5.4 percent inflation in December.
The inflation rate in 2022 started at a 9.4 percent high in January 2022, slowed to 3.2 percent in February, then progressively soared to 4.4 percent in March, 5.5 percent in April, and 6.9 percent in May.
The average food price changes for the first five months of the current year stood at 5.9 percent, higher than the -0.3 percent average inflation in 2021.
“The slowest average food inflation for the past three years was seen in 2021 at -0.3%, while the fastest at 5.0% was in 2019,” Losare said.
“The highest rate of food inflation in 2019 was 8.6% in the first three months, while the highest rates in 2020 and 2021 were 5.1 and 5.4 percent in April and December, respectively, still slower than in 2019,” Losare added.
