Mindanaotoday.com | As NorMin inflation reaches 8% in Feb, Oro consumers told: Spend money wisely
By: Franck Dick Rosete
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – In order to survive amid the sustained increase in the prices of goods and services in the country, changing the budgeting style of every consumer is a must, a government agency said recently.
Some of the residents in Cagayan de Oro made the statement when asked to comment after Northern Mindanao posted an 8.0% inflation rate in February this year, as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Region 10 on Thursday, March 30.
Although this month’s inflation rate has decreased compared to the 8.4% inflation rate in January this year.
However, this is still 4.0% higher compared to the inflation rate in February 2022.
Mae Shanne Angelic Siglos, a call center agent and a mother of three from Barangay Lapasan here, said because of the inflation, she shifted to buying affordable vegetables and canned goods rather than meat and other fresh products.
“Because of the inflation, we also minimized our recreational activities and eating out for dinner,” Siglos added in vernacular in an interview on Thursday.
The same sentiments were shared by Kaila Gen Pacamo, a mother of two from Barangay Kauswagan, where she stressed the biggest change nowadays from buying goods through delivery services to buying groceries in the public market—which made her save.
Cherry Mae Lago, an employee of a private company and a resident of Barangay Carmen, said there were no changes to the typical products she usually buys every month.
However, she restrained herself from buying those less important things online.
“The prices of goods have been increasing, but there has been no increase in the rate of an employee’s salary,” Lago said in vernacular.
PSA-10 director Janith Aves said the decrease from this month’s inflation was driven by transportation, where it decreased to 7.7% from 9.4% in January, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages with 11.8% from 12.1%, and restaurants and accommodation services with a 7.2% inflation rate from 8.2% in January.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages and transportation were also the major contributors to the February 2023 inflation, including the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 5.3% inflation rate.
Aves said out of the 13 commodity groups, clothing and footwear (4.5%), furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (4.5%), health (2.9%), recreation, sports and culture (2.1%), and information and communication (0.4%) were the groups that had the fastest increase in prices in February this year.
Based on the data presented by PSA-10, the province of Camiguin has the biggest increase in inflation this month, with a 9.3% inflation rate from 8.9% in January.
Meanwhile, the provinces of Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental got the biggest decrease this month from their inflation rates last month, with 7.6% from 8.3% and 8.2% from 8.9%, respectively.
Out of the five provinces and two highly urbanized cities in Northern Mindanao, Cagayan de Oro City remains the place with the lowest inflation rate, at 7.5%. (MT)
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