Iloilo: A strong agricultural production and the massive campaign on renewable energy have helped slow down the inflation rate in Iloilo. Jerry Dolutan, chief statistical specialist of the Philippine Statistics Authority-Iloilo, presented in a media conference on Tuesday that the province's inflation in March slowed down to 3.4 percent from 3.8 percent in the preceding month.

According to Philippines News Agency, the deceleration was driven by housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with an inflation rate of -0.6 percent from 5.9 percent; food and non-alcoholic beverages with 0.2 percent inflation from 4.7 percent; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, which recorded a 4.7 percent inflation rate from 5 percent in the preceding month.

Meanwhile, the top contributors to the 3.4 percent inflation included the restaurant and accommodation services with a 38.3 percent contribution; transport group, 10.9 percent; and alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 7.1 percent. Dolutan said it is worthy to note that amid an increase in fuel prices, the transport commodity only ranked second in terms of contribution to inflation.

He said the adoption of renewable energy could have helped reduce expenses. The reduction of prices in the food basket commodity could also be due to the sufficient supply of agricultural and fishery products. "Iloilo is self-sufficient in vegetables and fish. Even the price of meat has gone down. This is a big help for the people of the province," he added.