• 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 2019 was 119.0. This was higher by 2.3 index points from the 116.7 CPI of August 2018 using 2012 as base year.
• 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, Kalinga posted the highest CPI for August 2019 at 123.9, followed by Apayao at 122.7, and Benguet at 118.7 while Abra posted the lowest CPI at 116.5.

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 221.6. The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 350.5, followed by Abra, Kalinga, and Ifugao at 279.2, 263.5, and 216.4, respectively.
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for August 2019 at 128.0 index points. Among the provinces, Kalinga had the highest index on education at 193.9, while Apayao had the least at 65.7.
• Clothing and Footwear ranked third at 124.2 index points. Kalinga recorded the highest index on clothing footwear at 128.3, followed by Ifugao and Benguet at 128.0 and 124.0 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 101.3 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest index on communication with 105.7 index points, while Mountain Province had the lowest with 98.1 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces, Kalinga incurred the highest CPI for all items with 123.9, while Abra garnered the least index at 116.5 in August 2019.

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest increase at 17.3. Increases were also incurred in Education (6.2 points), Health (5.5 points), and Clothing and Footwear (5.3 points). The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

Figure 3. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group, CAR:

August 2018 and 2019 (2012=100)

 

• The average increase in the prices of goods and services in the region slowed down to 2.0% in August 2019 from the 4.1% in August 2018.
• Mountain Province and Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate in August 2019 at 4.8% and 4.1%, respectively, followed by Abra at 3.0%, and Apayao at 2.8%. Benguet incurred the least inflation among all provinces, with 0.3%.
• Inflation surpassed the August 2018 rate for the provinces of Ifugao and Mountain Province while other provinces had lower inflation rates in August 2019.

• Inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index in the region decreased from the July 2019 rate 0.5 to the 0.0 of August 2019.
• Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco remained to have the highest inflation in August 2019 among other commodities in the region with 8.5%, followed by Education with 5.1% and Health with 4.8%.
• Among all other commodities, Communication incurred an inflation rate of 0.0%.

Figure 5. Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups, CAR: August 2019

(2012=100)

 

By Food Items, Year-on-Year

• Among the food items, Corn recorded the highest CPI in the region in August 2019 with 165.3. This was followed by Fruits, Fish, and Meat with 132.2, 125.4, and 122.2 index points, respectively.
• By index point change, Fish recorded the highest increase by 6.6. Corn followed with a 6.3 index point increase and Oils and Fats with 5.4.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was 84 centavos in August 2019. It dropped by two centavos from 86 centavos in August 2018. This means that one peso in 2012 is worth 84 centavos in August 2019.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought with 100 pesos in December 2012 is worth 119.0 pesos in August 2019.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in August 2019 compared to the same month of the previous year.
• Abra had the highest peso value at 86 centavos, followed by Ifugao and Mountain Province at 85 centavo-peso value. Meanwhile, Kalinga and Ifugao had the lowest peso value at 81 centavos.