Consumer Price Index

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household.
• The Consumer Price Index of CAR in March 2016 was 141.1, higher by 2.7 index points from last year’s 138.4.
• Generally, CPI increases in all the provinces reflecting the increase in the average prices of goods and services.

Table 1. Consumer Price Index by Province, CAR: March 2015 and May 2016 (2006=100)

• Among the provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI at 150.3 followed by Ifugao at 147.2 and Benguet at 142.3. Apayao had the lowest CPI at 132.1.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province experienced the highest increase at 8.0, while Benguet had the least at 1.1 compared to the same period in 2015.
• The Consumer Price Index is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest CPI with 198.3 in the region. Among the provinces, Apayao was the highest with 217.9 followed by Abra and Kalinga at 204.5 and 202.8 index points, respectively.
• Education came next at 159.9 index points. Among the provinces, Mt. Province incurred the highest index for the month at 228.8.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages were at 154.6 index point with Benguet experiencing the highest at 159.9, followed by Mountain Province at 159.7.
• Communication had the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with Abra having the highest index at 111.4; while Apayao had the lowest at 77.7.
• Across provinces, Apayao posted the lowest index for all items.

Table 2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR: March, 2016 (2006=100)

• By index point change, education recorded the highest change at 12.5 points. This was followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco and food and non-alcoholic beverages at 11.4 and 4.3 points, respectively.
• The rest of the commodity groups reported a minimal annual increase in their index points. On the other hand, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels decreased by 1.1 points.

Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province

• The overall change in prices of goods and services in March 2016 in CAR was a decrease of 2.0 percent, lower by 0.5 percentage points from March 2015 at 2.5 percent.
• Mt. Province posted the highest inflation with 5.6 percent, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from last year’s 2.0 percent, followed by Ifugao, Kalinga and Abra with 3.8, 2.9 and 2.4 percent, respectively.
• As compared last year, the rates of price decreases in Apayao, and Benguet.

By Commodity Group, Month-on-Month

• By commodity, the year-on-year growth of the heavily-weighted food and nonalcoholic beverages index in the Cordillera accelerated to 2.9 percent compared to 2.3 during the previous month.
• Inflation in education remained the highest in the region with 8.5 percent. Followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 6.1 percent.
• For transport that posted a negative rate last month, accelerated to 0.2 percent; while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rates dropped to -0.8%.