Bohol: Second most expensive province
to live in Central Visayas
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that
the country’s inflation rate dropped to 6.1 percent in May
2023 from 6.6 in April. In May 2022, the inflation rate
was 5.4 percent.
The BSP’s latest estimates show that average inflation
will settle at 5.5 percent in 2023, lower than the 6.0
percent announced in March. The average inflation
forecast for 2024 fell slightly to 2.8 percent.
Although the inflation rate for Central Visayas for May
2023 was relatively lower at 5.4 percent compared to the
national average, Bohol turned out to be one of the most
expensive provinces to live in the region as it registered an
inflation rate of 7.1 percent, second to Negros Oriental
whose inflation rate was at 7.3 percent.
The factors causing high prices in the province appear
to have persisted from May 2022 to May 2023. PSA data
shows that Siquijor, Bohol, and Negros Oriental recorded
the highest year-to-date inflation rates of 9.4, 8.4, and
7.1, respectively. The City of Mandaue has the lowest
year-to-date inflation rate of 3.3 percent, while Cebu City
and Lapu-Lapu City have 4.6 percent.
In its April 2023 report, PSA identified food and non-
alcoholic beverages (49.5 percent share); housing, water,
electricity, gas, and other fuels (22.3 percent share); and
restaurants and accommodation services (11.0 percent
share) as the main contributors to Bohol’s headline
inflation. Anecdotal reports confirm that these products
and services are the most expensive in the province.
The PSA data only confirms the perennial complaints
of the Boholanos and the tourists that Bohol is an
expensive province to live in. This is a challenge to the
current administration of the province and the different
municipalities to develop a long-term solution to address
this problem. The solution need not be crafted through
expensive lakbayaral among government officials. They
can start by learning how the cities of Mandaue, Cebu,
and Lapu-Lapu managed to keep their inflation rates the
lowest in the region despite being highly urbanized cities.