ILOILO CITY — Prices of basic goods and services in Western Visayas remained unchanged for the second straight month.

PEOPLE purchase goods in a stall in a wet market in Iloilo City. (Tara Yap)

The Philippine Statistics Authority-6 reported that the region’s inflation rate remained at 2.7 percent in March, similar to February.

“Despite the headline inflation recording the same annual growth in March 2025 as in February 2025, there were higher inflation in several major commodity groups,” said Nida Amolar, PSA-6 officer-in-charge and chief statistical specialist.

There was higher inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages with 2.5 percent from 2.4 percent in February.

Inflation for alcoholic beverages and tobacco jumped to 5.2 percent from five percent.

There was also a 1.2 percent increase in prices of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels to 4.1 percent from 2.9 percent in February.

Iloilo had the highest inflation rate in March with 4.2 percent but 0.3 percent lower than the 4.5 percent in February.

The regional capital of Iloilo City had the second highest inflation rate with 3.9 percent.

Bacolod City had the region’s third highest inflation rate at 3.5 percent, followed by
2.8 percent in Negros Occidental province; 1.9 percent in Capiz province; 0.4 percent in Aklan province, and 0.2 percent in Guimaras province.

Antique province had the lowest inflation rate at 0.1 percent.