The Batangas Province headline inflation or overall inflation retained its previous month’s inflation rate at 2.6 percent in December 2024. This brings the provincial average inflation from January to December 2024 at 3.1 percent. In December 2023, inflation rate was higher at 4.5 percent (Table 1 and Figure 1)

On the other hand, Region IV-A CALABARZON increased to 3.3 percent in December 2024 from 2.7 in November 2024. In CALABARZON, Batangas with 2.6 inflation rate
placed fourth to Rizal at 5.1 percent, Quezon at 4.6 percent, Laguna at 3.4 percent inflation rate in December 2024.

Moreover, Philippines headline inflation increased to 2.9 percent in December 2024 from 2.5 percent in November 2024. This brings the national average inflation from January to December 2024 to 3.2 percent. In December 2023, the inflation rate was higher at 3.9 percent. (Table 1)

The uptrend in the overall inflation in December 2024 was primarily influenced by the faster annual increment in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.8 during the month from 3.5 percent in November 2024. The annual increase of transport at (0.6) percent during the month from (2.0) percent in November also contributed to the uptrend.

In contrast, the following commodity groups registered lower inflation rates during the month:

a. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 2.9 percent from 3.5 percent
b. Clothing and Footwear, 0.5 percent from 1.5 percent
c. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 3.7 percent from 4.3 percent
d. Health, 1.4 percent from 2.2 percent
e. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 1.5 percent from 2.4 percent
f. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 1.9 percent from 2.1 percent

The indices of the rest of the commodity groups retained their respective previous month’s inflation rates in December 2024. (Table 2)

Moreover, the top three commodity groups contributing to the December 2024 overall inflation were the following:

a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 46.4 percent share or 1.21 percentage points
b. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with 31.9 percent share or 0.83 percentage points
c. Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 12.9 percent share or 0.34 percentage points 

Food inflation in Batangas rose to 3.7 percent in December 2024 from 3.5 percent in the previous month. In December 2023, food inflation was higher at 4.8 percent. (Table 3)

Food inflation shared 43.5 percent or 1.1 percentage points to the overall inflation in December 2024. The top three food groups in terms of contribution to the food inflation during the month were the following:

a. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals with a share of 47.0 percent or 1.7 percentage points;
b. Cereals and cereal products which included rice, corn flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products and other cereals, with a share of 22.5 percent or 0.83 percentage points;
c. Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses with a share of 19.9 percent or 0.73 percentage points  

In 2024, the annual average food inflation rate was observed at 3.1 percent lower than the recorded annual average food inflation rate of 6.3 in 2023.