Aklan inflation soars to 4.9% in March, highest in Western Visayas

KALIBO, AKLAN- Aklan’s inflation rate surged to 4.9 percent in March 2026, up from 3.4 percent in February 2026 and 0.4 percent in the same period last year, based on the latest price survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The province’s headline inflation for the month was the highest among provinces in
Western Visayas and exceeded the region’s inflation rate of 3.5 percent.

The uptrend in inflation was primarily driven by faster annual increases in Food and Non- Alcoholic Beverages, which rose to 5.6 percent in March 2026 from 3.2 percent in February 2026, contributing 54.1 percent to the overall increase. A key contributor within this commodity group was rice, which recorded an inflation rate of 1.4 percent, a turnaround from -6.8 percent in the previous month.

Transport also recorded a significant increase, with inflation rising to 10.8 percent from 1.8 percent in February 2026, accounting for 45.9 percent of the overall inflation uptrend.

This was mainly driven by faster inflation in gasoline, at 17.9 percent from -13.2 percent, and diesel, at 47.7 percent from -3.8 percent.

On the other hand, three commodity groups recorded slower annual increases during the month. These were Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, which decelerated to 2.1 percent from 4.7 percent; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, which eased to 0.4 percent from 1.7 percent; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, which slowed to 2.6 percent from 3.0 percent.

The indices of the rest of the commodity groups remained at their previous month’s annual
rates.

Food inflation in province of Aklan recorded a rate of 5.4 percent in March 2026 from 2.9 percent in the previous month while it was observed at -0.8 in March 2025.

Among the food groups, the uptrend in food inflation was mainly due to increase in the following food groups during the month; Cereals and cereal products (1.7 from -4.5 percent), Oils and fats (0.6 from 0.3 percent), Fruits and nuts (17.3 from 13.1 percent) and Vegetable, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses (34.8 from 23.4 percent).

On the contrary, lower annual increases were observed in the indices of the following commodity groups during the month; Fish and other seafood (10.2 percent from 10.8 percent) and Ready-made food and other food products not elsewhere classified (7.3 percent from 7.8 percent).

Moreover, faster annual declines were observed in the indices of meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at -5.2 percent from -4.9 percent in February 2026, Milk, other dairy products and eggs at -0.5 percent from -0.1 percent and Sugar, confectionery and desserts at -0.3 percent from 0.6 percent in the previous month.

Inflation refers to the overall increase in the prices of goods and services over time. When inflation rises, the value of money decreases. This is reflected in the purchasing power of the peso, which shows how much goods and services a peso can buy compared to the 2018 base year.