For May 2025, inflation rate (IR) for the bottom 30% income households in CALABARZON remained constant at 1.7 percent. It can be attributed to modest declines in price of commodities in Batangas, Laguna, and Rizal which triggered slowdowns of overall inflation rate in the said provinces.  Inflation Rate in Cavite remained constant at a low rate of 0.2 percent. In contrast, the City of Lucena and Quezon province experienced slight increases in their inflation rates, moving from 1.3 percent to 1.6 percent and 2.4 percent to 2.6 percent, respectively.

Among provinces, Cavite recorded the lowest IR at 0.2 percent; while Quezon recorded the highest IR at 2.6 percent (refer to Table A).

The headline inflation rate for the bottom 30% income households in CALABARZON slowdown from 4.7 percent in May 2024 to 1.7 percent in May 2025.  Inflation rate initially rose from 4.7 percent in May 2024 to 5.1 percent by July 2024, the highest inflation rate recorded for 2024. Following this peak, a general downward trend was observed, punctuated by minor increases, until reaching the lowest recorded rate of 1.7 percent in April and May 2025.

Inflation for the lowest 30% income households in the region remained steady at 1.7 percent this month, primarily due to the overall stability of most commodity groups.

Key contributors to this stability were:
a. Food and non-alcoholic beverages with 1.9 percent inflation rate;
b. Furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance 2.0 percent inflation rate;
c. Information and communication 0.3 percent inflation rate;
d. Recreation, sport and culture 1.8 percent inflation rate;
e. Education services 9.1 percent inflation rate; and
f. Financial services with 0.0 percent inflation.

However, the following commodity groups experienced higher inflation in May 2025: 
a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 4.2 percent inflation rate; 
b. Clothing and footwear with 1.0 percent inflation rate;
c. Health with 2.0 percent inflation rate; and 
d. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services with 2.6 percent inflation rate.

Conversely, lower inflation rates were observed in Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels and Restaurants and accommodation services with 0.7 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. While Transport had a faster negative inflation rate of -1.7 percent.

For Food items, a slightly higher increase in prices was observed in May 2025 at an average rate of 1.9 percent, incurring a 0.1 percentage point increase from the previous month’s IR of 1.8 percent. Moreover, this month’s IR is much lower compared to the price increase in May 2024 which was at 6.4 percent (Table C).

The primary contributor to the slower inflation rate of the Food group was the faster negative IR of Rice at -9.8 percent, from -7.7 percent in April 2025. In addition, prices of Corn experienced a slowdown from 7.6 percent to 3.9 percent.

For non-alcoholic beverages, inflation rate increased from 2.9 percent to 3.2 percent in May 2025. The region’s overall inflation rate for Food and non-alcoholic beverages for the bottom 30 percent income households in May 2025 remained steady compared to the previous month at 1.9 percent.

(SGD.)
CHARITO C. ARMONIA
Regional Director

COB/JAS/LBR