COTABATO CITY—The inflation rate in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has dropped 1.1 percent from 7.6 percent in March to 6.7 percent in April, the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA-BARMM) reported on Wednesday, May 10.
PSA-BARMM Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Engineer Akan Tula said the main factors contributing to the decrease of the region’s inflation rate were the reduced costs of food and non-alcoholic beverages, transport, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels.
“At some point, this deceleration of the inflation rate in BARMM can be considered as one of the indicators that the region’s economy is going stable,” said Tula.
Of the country’s 18 regions, BARMM is the fifth among the country’s regions after the National Capital Region (NCR) to have slowed down their inflation rate in April 2023. BARMM used to have the sixth highest inflation rate.
“In the month of April 2023, BARMM inflation rate is 6.7 percent with 1.1 percent decrease as compared to 7.8 percent inflation rate in the previous month of March 2023,” Tula stressed.
Among the provinces in BARMM, Tawi-Tawi recorded the highest inflation rate at 10.8 percent, followed by Basilan at 9.4 percent, Sulu at 6.6 percent, Lanao Del Sur at 5.4 percent with the lowest inflation rate and Maguindanao at 6.1 percent. All five have posted corresponding decreases in their inflation rates.
The PSA-BARMM also reported Cotabato City posted a lower inflation rate to 4.9 percent in April 2023, from 5.5 percent in March 2023.The country’s inflation rate has dropped 1.0 percent to 6.6 percent in April from 7.6 in March 2023