Consumer Price Index

• 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 CPI of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in May 2018 was 150.3. This was higher by 7.0 index points from the 143.3 CPI of May 2017.
• In general, the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces of CAR.

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for May 2018 at 163.8, followed by Ifugao at 155.7, and Benguet at 151.3. Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 136.8.
• In terms of index point change, Mt. Province incurred the highest increase at 10.3 index points, followed by Kalinga with 10.2 points, and Benguet with 7.4 points.

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 32.3 points. Increases were also incurred in Food and Non-Alcoholic beverages (10.2 points), Education (5.7 points), and Furnishings Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House (5.1 points). The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

Inflation Rate

• Average increase in prices of goods and services in the region accelerated to 4.9 percent in May 2018 from 1.7 percent in the same month of the previous year.
• Kalinga posted the highest inflation rate at 7.3 percent, followed by Mt. Province at 6.7 percent, and Benguet at 5.1 percent.
• Inflation surpassed the May 2017 rates for all the provinces except for the province of Ifugao.

Figure 2. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province, CAR:

May 2017 and 2018 (2006=100)

By Commodity Group, Year- on-Year

• Year-on-year inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index in the region decelerated to 6.5 percent from 6.9 percent in the previous month.
• Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco had the highest inflation among other commodities in the region with 15.1 percent.
• Meanwhile, inflation rates for Health, Communication, Recreation and Culture, and Education were the same last month.

By Food Items, Year-on-Year

• Fish (12.5), Vegetables (10.8), and Corn (10.7) persisted to be the top three highest price increases in May 2018.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was 67 centavos in May 2018. This dropped by three centavos from 70 centavos in May 2017. This means that one peso in May 2006 is worth 67 centavos in May 2018.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought 100 pesos in 2006 is worth 149 pesos in May 2018.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in May 2018 as compared to May 2017.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 73 centavos, followed by Abra at 72 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 61 centavos.

Technical Notes

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a 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.

Inflation Rate (IR) is the rate of change in the average price level between two periods (year-on year/month-on-month as measured by the CPI)

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) measures how much the peso in the reference year is worth in another year

Base Year (BY) is the reference point of the index number series, at which the index number is set to zero.

Market Basket (MB) is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bought.