TACLOBAN CITY – The inflation rate in Eastern Visayas went up to 7.4 percent in October after two consecutive months of deceleration, the Philippines Statistics Authority said.
It registered double-digit inflation of 11.1 percent from 8.6 percent in September.
The PSA attributed the uptrend primarily due to the higher annual growth rate in the index for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuel.
It was followed by the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index which recorded an 8.1 percent increase in October from 7.7 percent in September.
The regional inflation rate, however, is lower than the 7.7 percent national inflation rate in October.
With this month’s inflation rate, the region’s average from January to October stood at 6.4 percent, 1.3 percent higher than the same period last year.