Headline inflation or the annual rate of change on the prices of goods and services in the market basket in Oriental Mindoro increased further to 4.9 percent in December 2024 from 3.9 percent in November 2024. This brings the provincial average inflation from January to December 2024 to 3.1 percent. (Table 1)

The increased inflation rate in the province for the month of December 2024 was mainly influenced by the higher annual increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 7.3 percent from 6.1 percent in the previous month and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels indexed at 4.9 percent from 3.8 percent in November 2024. The annual increase of transport at 0.1 percent during the month from an annual decline of 1.6 percent in the previous month also contributed to the uptrend. (Table 2)

The top five (5) main contributors to the uptrend overall inflation of the province in December 2024 are the following commodities:

1. Meat of pigs, fresh, chilled or frozen, 69.8 percent from 45.7 percent;
2. Electricity, 11.4 percent from 2.4 percent;
3. Meat of poultry, fresh or chilled, 15.0 percent from 11.4 percent;
4. Rentals which retained its previous month’s rate of 3.1 percent; and
5. Restaurants, café and the like, also retained its previous month’s rate at 4.3 percent.

For food index, it increased to 7.6 percent in December 2024 from 6.4 percent in the previous month. In December 2023, food inflation was recorded at 1.8 percent.

The overall inflation for the Bottom 30% Income Households in December 2024 was registered at 5.4 percent from 4.2 percent in November 2024.

The main sources of acceleration of the December 2024 inflation of Oriental Mindoro for the Bottom 30% Income Households are the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index at 7.2 percent during this month from 4.7 percent in November 2024. This was followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages registered at 5.8 percent in December 2024 from 5.4 percent in the previous month. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco which increased at 11.1 percent in December 2024 from 5.3 percent in the previous month also contributed to the year-on-year inflation trend for December 2024.

CHARLYN ROMERO-CANTOS, PhD
(Chief Administrative Officer)
Officer-in-Charge
Provincial Statistical Office Oriental Mindoro

HTD/MACB