A.    Caraga

1.    Overall Inflation
     
    Inflation Rate for Bottom 30% Income Households Slowed to 0.2 percent in March 2025

The inflation rate for the bottom 30% income households in the region slowed to 0.2 percent in March 2025, down from 0.3 percent in February 2025. This marks a significant decline from 4.4 percent in March 2024. (Refer to Figure 1, Tables A and B)

The primary driver of this slowdown was the sharp decline in the year-on-year growth rate of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and other Fuels. Inflation in this category eased to 0.7 percent in March 2025, down from 5.0 percent in February 2025. The main contributor to this deceleration was the significant drop in electricity prices, which recorded an inflation rate of -1.6 percent, a steep fall from 13.4 percent in the previous month. This category alone accounted for approximately 92.2 percent of the overall inflation decline for this income group.

Other Commodity Groups with declining inflation

A.    Transport: Inflation in this group further drop to -1.2 percent in March 2025 from -0.6 percent in February 2025. The decline was largely driven by decreased gasoline prices, which posted an inflation rate of -6.2 percent this month from -3.6 percent in the previous month.

B.    Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Service: Inflation in this category also slowed, recording 2.7 percent in March 2025, down from 2.8 percent in February 2025.

C.    Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance: Inflation in this group slightly decline to 1.7 percent this month from 1.8 percent in the previous month.

On the contrary, several other commodity groups recorded increased inflation rates in March 2025:

A.    Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, at -0.8 percent from -1.3 percent;
B.    Clothing and Footwear, at 2.7 percent from 2.2 percent;
C.    Health, at 1.0 percent from 0.6 percent;
D.    Information and Communication, at 1.7 percent from 1.1 percent; 
E.    Recreation, Sport and Culture, at 6.3 percent from 5.8 percent; and
F.    Restaurants and Accommodation Services, at 2.2 percent from 1.0 percent.

Meanwhile, the following commodity groups retained there respective previous month’s inflation rates in February 2025:

A.    Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, at 6.5 percent;
B.    Education services, at 0.2 percent; and
C.    Financial Services, at 0.0 percent. 

2.    Food Inflation    

        Food Inflation for Bottom 30% Income Households Drops to -1.1 Percent in March 2025

Food inflation for the bottom 30% income households at the regional level declined to -1.1 percent in March 2025, from -1.7 percent in February 2025. This marks a significant decrease compared to 7.8 percent in March 2024 (refer to Table D).

Among the food groups, the major contributor to food inflation was cereals and cereals products, with inflation dropping to -9.5 percent from -5.5 percent in February 2025. The continued decline in the year-on-year growth rates of rice and corn caused the decrease in the food category’s inflation. Rice registered an inflation rate of -11.2 percent inflation this month, down from -6.5 percent in February 2025, while corn posted and inflation rate of -9.8 percent in March 2025, compared to -7.4 percent in the previous month.

Other Food groups with lower inflation in March 2025:

A.    Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products and other cereals: Declined to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent.
B.    Oils and fats: Decreased to 2.1 percent from 2.9 percent.
C.    Ready-made food and other food products n.e.c: Decreased to 4.4 percent from 5.2 percent.

Food groups with higher inflation in March 2025:

    Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals: Rose to 7.6 percent from 6.6     percent.
    Fish and other seafood: Increased to 4.7 percent from -4.5 percent.
    Milk, other dairy products and eggs: Increased to 5.5 percent from 5.0 percent.
    Fruits and nuts: Increased to 6.0 percent from 5.6 percent.
    Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses: Rose to 5.8     percent from 0.1 percent.
    Sugar, confectionery and desserts; Increased to 3.3 percent from -0.1 percent.

B.    Provinces and Highly Urbanized City (HUC)

    Regional Inflation Trends: March 2025

In March 2025, inflation varies across all five provinces and Highly Urbanized City (HUC) in the region. The changes in inflation rates were as follows:

1.    Agusan del Norte: 0.2 percent up from 0.0 percent;
2.    Agusan del Sur: -0.2 percent up from -0.5 percent;
3.    Surigao del Norte: 1.0 percent down from 1.7 percent;
4.    Surigao del Sur: 0.2 percent down from 0.9 percent; 
5.    Dinagat islands: -3.3 percent down from -2.6 percent; and
6.    Butuan City: 1.5 percent up from 0.8 percent.

Among all areas, Butuan City (HUC) posted the highest inflation rate at 1.5 percent, while Dinagat Islands recorded the lowest at -3.3 percent in March 2025 (Refer to Table A).

Note:
CPIs and inflation rates by province and selected city are posted on the PSA website (http://openstat.psa.gov.ph/).

(Sgd.) GUILLERMO M. LIPIO, JR.
(Chief Statistical Specialist)
Officer-In-Charge
PSA RSSO XIII