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.
• In general, the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces and the highly urbanized city (HUC) of CAR.
• The CPI of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in September 2022 was 116.9 index points. This was higher by 7.2 index points from the 109.7 CPI index points of September 2021 using 2018 as base year.
• Among the CAR provinces/HUC, Mt. Province posted the highest CPI for September 2022 with 122.9 index points, followed by Kalinga with 120.6 index points and Ifugao with 118.6 index points.
• Meanwhile, Baguio City posted the lowest CPI with 113.9 index points.
CPI by Commodity Groups
• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 143.0 index points. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 168.2 index points, followed by Mt. Province with 164.2 index points, and Abra with 158.4 index points.
• Financial Services ranked second among the commodity groups in the region for September 2022 with 139.2 index points. Among the provinces, Abra had the highest CPI on this commodity with 160.4 index points while Mt. Province had the lowest with 100.0 index points.
• Transport registered the third highest CPI commodity group in the region with 131.5 index points. Apayao recorded the highest index for this commodity with 143.8 index points, followed by Benguet and Ifugao with 140.0 and 136.8 index points, respectively.
• Information and Communication incurred the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of September 2022 with 101.8 index points. The province of Benguet incurred the highest index on this commodity with 103.2 index points while Mountain Province had the lowest with 99.8 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mountain Province incurred the highest CPI for All Items with 122.9 index points while Baguio City recorded the lowest CPI with 113.9 index points in September 2022.
• By index point change, almost all commodity groups in September 2022 incurred increases in index point compared to the previous year. Transport recorded the highest increase with 26.9 index points. This was followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and Restaurant and Accommodation Services with 11.9 and 8.9 index point change, respectively.
• Financial Services posted no changes on index points in September 2022.
• In September 2022, Transport recorded the highest increase of CPI with 25.7 percent from the previous year in the same month. This was followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 9.1 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.
• Information and Communication incurred the lowest increase of CPI with 0.1 percent for September 2022.
CPI Market Basket
• Since it is virtually impossible to have periodic measures on the changes in the prices of all the thousands of varieties of goods and purchased for consumption and services availed by households, a sample of these items, known as the “CPI market basket”, was selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services purchased by consumers.
• The Cordillera region contributes 1.63 percent of goods and services in the national market basket.
• Among the goods and services in the market basket of the Cordillera region, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages has the most percent share with 35.8 percent. This was followed by Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 25.7 percent, and Transport with 9.5 percent.
• Financial Services has the least percent share in the market basket of CAR with 0.1 percent only.
Inflation Rate
• The inflation of the prices of goods and services in the region slightly increased to 6.6 percent in September 2022, from 6.5 percent in August 2022. This was higher by 1.2 percentage points compared to the lower inflation rate at 5.4 percent of the region in September 2021.
• Among the commodity groups, Education Services has the highest increase of inflation with 1.6 percent in September 2022 that contributes to the upward trend of the region’s inflation from the previous month. Moreover, the following commodities also contributed to the upward trend of the inflation during the month:
a. Transport, 25.7 percent;
b. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 3.8 percent;
c. Restaurants and Accommodation Services, 7.7 percent;
d. Clothing and Footwear, 3.4 percent; and
e. Health, 3.0 percent
• On the other hand, lower increase of inflation percentage points was observed in the indices of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 4.7 percent, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 9.1 percent, Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance at 2.5 percent, and Information and Communication at 0.1 percent in September 2022 compared to the previous month.
• The rest of the commodity groups incurred zero increase of percentage points from the previous month’s inflation rates.
• The acceleration in the region’s inflation rate in September 2022 was brought about by the higher annual increase in the index for Transport at 25.7 percent, from 25.0 percent in the previous month. This was followed by Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels at 4.7 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. Higher annual hikes were also observed in the indices of the following commodity groups during the month:
a. Restaurant and Accommodation Services, 7.7 percent;
b. Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 4.3 percent;
c. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 9.1 percent;
d. Clothing and Footwear, 3.4 percent;
e. Health, 3.0 percent;
f. Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, 2.5 percent;
g. Education Services, 1.6 percent;
h. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 3.8 percent; and
i. Information and Communication, 0.1 percent.
• Meanwhile, the Financial Services index retained its previous month’s annual rate.
• Among the provinces in the Cordillera region, Mt. Province posted the highest inflation rate in September 2022 with 9.1 percent. This was followed by Apayao and Benguet with 8.0 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively. Baguio City incurred the lowest inflation rate with 4.6 percent.
• The province of Ifugao and the only HUC in the Cordillera region, which is Baguio City, recorded a lower inflation rate for September 2022 compared to the same month of the previous year using 2018 as the base year. All other provinces recorded a higher inflation rate compared in September 2021.
Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)
• The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in all the provinces generally weakened in September 2022 compared to the same month of the previous year.
• The value of one (1) peso in the region was 86 centavos in September 2022. It dropped by five (5) centavos from 91 centavos in September 2021. Among the provinces, Baguio City had the highest peso value with 88 centavos, followed by Abra, Apayao, and Benguet with 85 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value with 81 centavos.
• Conversely, a basket of goods that can be bought with 100 pesos in December 2018 is worth 113.9 pesos in September 2022.
• Also, one hundred pesos in 2018 was worth 86 pesos in September 2022.
VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director
Regional Director
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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 100. It is the reference point of the index number series.
The CPI is now rebased to 2018 base year from the 2012 base year. The year 2018 was chosen as the next base year because it was the latest year when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) results were made available.
The rebasing of the CPI is done periodically by the PSA due to the following: 1) to ensure that the CPI market basket continues to capture goods and services commonly purchased by households over time; 2) to update expenditure patterns of households; 3) to synchronize its base year with 2018 base year of the Gross Domestic Product and other indices produced by PSA such as the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Agriculture; PPI for Manufacturing; and Value of Production Index (VaPI), Volume of Production Index (VoPI), and Value of Net Sales Index (VaNSI) for Manufacturing.
Market Basket (MB) is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bought by the households.
