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 140.9. This is higher by 2.4 index points from last year’s 138.5.
• In general, CPI increased in all the provinces reflecting the increase in the average prices of goods and services.

Table1. Consumer Price Index by Province, CAR:
April 2015 and April 2016
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI at 150.2, followed by Ifugao at 145.8 and Benguet at 142.4. Apayao had the lowest CPI at 131.4.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province posted the highest increase at 6.9, but had inched lower by 1.1 index points when compared to last month’s 8.0 index point change. Benguet had experienced the lowest at 0.9 as compared to the same period in 2015.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco registered the highest CPI in the region at 199.7. Among the provinces, Apayao was the highest with 220.4 followed by Abra and Kalinga at 206.8, and 203.2 index points, respectively.
• Education came in second at 159.9 index points. Mt. Province incurred the highest index for the month at 228.8 among the CAR provinces.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages were at 143.5 index points with Mt. Province experiencing the highest at 159.1, followed by Benguet at 158.9.
• 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 index points.
• Across provinces, Apayao posted the lowest index for all items.

Table2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR:
April 2016(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, alcoholic beverages & tobacco recorded the highest change at 12.6 points. This was followed by education at 12.5 points, clothing & footwear at 2.9 points, and restaurant at 2.9 points.
• Minimal annual increases in the index points were reported among the rest of the commodity groups. Meanwhile, Food & Alcoholic Beverages, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels, and Transport decreased by 7.1, 0.2 and 0.5 points, respectively.

Figure 1. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group,
CAR: April 2015 and April 2016 (2006=100)

                                                                   Note:
                                                                    ^{1. includes electricity, Gas & Other Fuels
                                                                                          2. includes Household Equipment and Routine Maintainance of the House
                                                                                           3. includes Miscellaneous Goods and Services}
                                                                   Source:Philippine Statistics Authority

Inflation Rate

• The overall change in the prices of goods and services in April 2016 in the region was at 1.7 percent. This is lower by 0.7 percentage points from April 2015 at 2.4 percent.
• Mt. Province posted the highest inflation rate at 4.8 percent, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from last year’s 2.7 percent. This is followed by Ifugao, Kalinga and Abra with 3.3, 2.5 and 2.3 percent, respectively.
• As compared last year, the rates of price decreased in Apayao, and Benguet.

By Commodity Group, Month - on - Month

• The year-on-year growth of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index by commodity groups in CAR decelerated to 1.9 percent compared to 2.9 during the previous month.
• Inflation in education remained the highest in the region with 8.5 percent, followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 6.7 percent.
• For the transport commodity group which posted a positive rate last month, decelerated to -0.4 percent. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels on the other hand remained to incur negative rates at -0.2 percent.

Table 3. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups,
CAR: April and March 2016 (2006 = 100)

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• In general, the year-on-year inflation rates modestly accelerated for all food items.
• Corn and Fish continued to gain the highest price increases in April 2016 at 7.8 and 7.2 percent.
• Fruits and Food Products, NEC on the other hand switched a negative inflation rate at -0.7 and -2.0 percent, respectively.
• The low prices of meat contributed to continued negative annual inflation rate of the commodity.

Table5. Year - on Year Inflation Rates of Selected Food Items, CAR:
April and March 2016 and 2015(2006=100)

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in CAR dropped to 71 centavos from last year’s 72 centavos. This means that the market value of goods and services worth 71 centavos in April 2006 were bought at one peso in April 2016.
• When compared to April 2015, the PPP of all the provinces decreased.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos followed by Abra at 75 centavos, and Kalinga at 73 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 67 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.