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 August 2017 was 144.5. This was higher by 3.3 index points from the 141.2 CPI last August 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:
August 2016 and August 2017
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for August 2017 at 156.0, followed by Ifugao at 152.3, and Benguet at 145.0. Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 131.8.  
• In terms of index point change, Ifugao incurred the highest increase at 5.2 points, followed by Mountain Province with 4.5 points increase. 

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region at 218.4. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity at 234.7, followed by Apayao, Abra and Benguet at 227.4, 225.0 and 220.2, respectively.
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for August 2017 at 167.5 index. Among the provinces, Mountain Province had the highest index on education at 258.2, while Apayao had the lowest at 142.2.
• Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages ranked third at 157.8 index points. Mountain Province experienced the highest index on food and non-alcoholic beverages at 163.7, followed by the province of Benguet and Ifugao at 162.2 and 160.8 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.3 index. Abra province incurred the highest index on this commodity at 111.4 points, while Apayao had the lowest at 78.3 index. 
• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province consistently incurred the highest CPI for all items with 156.0 index, while the province of Apayao continued to have the lowest index at 131.8 points.

Table2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR:
August 2017(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 15.6 points.  Increases were also incurred for Education (5.7 points), Clothing and Footwear (4.1 points) and Food & Non-alcoholic Beverages (3.4 points).
• The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases in their index points. 

Figure 1. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group,
CAR: August 2016 and August 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

• Prices of goods and services in the region rose by 2.3 percent in August 2017.  
• Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate at 3.5 percent, followed by Mountain Province at 3.0 percent, and Kalinga at 2.5 percent
• Inflation surpassed the August 2016 rate for the province of Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province while other provinces had lower inflation rates in August 2017 as compared to the same month last year. 

Figure 2. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province,
CAR: August 2016 and August 2017 (2006=100)

By Commodity Group, Year - on - Year

• By commodity, the year-on-year inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index in the region accelerated at 2.2 percent from 0.3 percent in the previous month.
• Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco had the highest inflation among other commodities in the region with 7.7 percent increase, followed by Education, and Clothing and Footwear with 3.5 and 3.1 percent increases, respectively.
• Meanwhile, inflation rates for Communication, Recreation and Culture, and Restaurants and Miscellaneous Goods and Services were the same last year.

Table 3. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups,
CAR: June and July 2017 (2006 = 100)

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Meat (4.8), Fish (3.6), Corn (3.5), and Oil and Fats (3.4) persisted to have the highest price increases in August 2017.

• Meanwhile, Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery, and Food Products not elsewhere classified consecutively incurred negative inflation rates of 1.2 percent, and 5.8 percent, respectively.

Table5. Year - on Year Inflation Rates of Selected Food Items, CAR:
July 2017 and 2016; August 2017 and 2016(2006=100)

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was at 69 centavos in August 2017. This dropped by two centavos from 71 centavos in August 2016.  This means that one peso in August 2006 is worth 71 centavos in August 2017.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought 100 pesos in August 2006 is worth 145 pesos in August 2017.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in August 2017 as compared to August 2016.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos, followed by Abra at 73 centavos, and Kalinga at 71 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 64 centavos.

Figure 3. Purchasing Power of Peso by Province,
CAR: August 2016 and  2017 (2006=100)

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.