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 CPI of Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in March 2017 was 143.6. This was higher by 2.5 index points as compared to the  141.1 CPI of the same month in 2016.
• In general, the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces of CAR.  

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

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the provinces in the region, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for August 2016 at 151.5, followed by Ifugao at 147.1 and Benguet at 141.9. The province of Apayao had the lowest CPI at 131.2.
• In terms of index point change, Ifugao had the highest increase at 4.6 while Benguet decreased by 0.7.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest CPI in the region at 202.8. The province of Apayao incurred the highest among the CAR provinces at 220.2, followed by Abra and Kalinga at 213.3 and 209.6 index points, respectively.
• Education came next at 161.8 index points. Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province incurred the highest index for August 2016 at 233.9 points.
• Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages were at 154.4 index points with the province of Mountain Province experiencing the highest at 159.9, followed by Benguet at 159.0.
• Communication had the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.2, Abra incurred the highest index at 111.4; while Apayao had the lowest at 77.9 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces, Apayao consistently had the lowest CPI for all items.

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

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest increase, growing up by 14.8 points. Increases were also incurred for Clothing and Footwear by 3.6 points, Restaurant, Miscellaneous Goods and Services by 2.7 and Health by 2.1 points
• The rest of the commodity groups reported a minimal annual increase in their index points. Meanwhile, Transport and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels decreased at 0.3 points and 0.1 points, respectively.

Figure 1. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group,
CAR: February 2016 and february 2017 (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

• For August 2016, prices of goods and services in CAR remained at 0.9 percent.
• Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate at 3.2 percent, followed by Mountain Province at 2.7 percent, Kalinga at 2.6 percent, and Abra at 1.9 percent.
• Compared to August 2015, price rates increased in the provinces except for Mountain Province and Benguet.

By Commodity Group, Year - on - Year

• By commodity, the year-on-year growth of the heavily-weighted Food and NonAlcoholic Beverages index in the region slowed down to 0.7 percent as compared to 3.2 percent of the previous month.
• Inflation in Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco is the highest in the region with 7.9 percent, followed by Clothing and Footwear with 2.8 percent.
• Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintainance of the House, Health and Communication remained 1.5, 1.6 and 0.2 percent, respectively.

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

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• In general, the year-on-year inflation rates modestly accelerated for all food items except fruits and vegetables.
• Corn and Fish persisted to have the highest price increase in August 2016 with 10.1 and 3.8 percent, respectively
• Other Cereals, and Food Products, not elsewhere classified (NEC) continued to have negative inflation rates at -0.2 and -5.5 percent, respectively.

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

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region for August 2016 was at 71 centavos incurring the same PPP last August 2015. This means that the market value of goods and services worth 71 centavos in August 2006 were bought at one peso in August 2016.
• The PPP of all the provinces generally declined in August 2016 as compared to August 2015, except for Benguet which remained at 70 centavos.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos, followed by Abra at 74 centavos and Kalinga at 72 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 66 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.