SPECIAL RELEASE

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
ABRA: August 2022
(2018=100)

Date of Release: September 8, 2022
Reference No. 22CAR01-869

PRICE SITUATION: Year-on-Year

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all income household in Abra for August 2022 is 117. This implies that a household in Abra needs 17 pesos more to purchase the same basket of goods worth 100 pesos in 2018.

This month’s CPI for all items is 8.2 higher than last years’s index. Changes in the prices of different commodities determine the fluctuations in the monthly CPI.

The higher index was due to the recorded price changes in the following: Transoport at 21.3 percent, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 19.3 percent
and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 7.0 percent.

All other commodity groups increased in prices, except Clothing and Footwear, Education Services and Financial Services which posted a static percent
change.

Figure 3 shows the trend of inflation rate in the province for the period August 2021 to August 2022. Inflation rate posted the least in January 2022 with 1.2 percent while its highest inflation rate was observed in August 2022 with 7.5 percent.

Concepts and Definitions

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

          The CPI is an indicator of the changes in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year.

Uses of CPI

          The CPI is most widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of peso. It is a major statistical series used for economic analysis and as a monitoring indicator of      government economic policy.

Computation of CPI

          The computation of the CPI involves consideration of the following important points:

           a. Base Period - The reference date or base period is the benchmark or reference date or period at which the index is taken as equal to 100.

           b. Market Basket - A sample of the thousands of varieties of goods purchased for consumption and services availed by the households in the country selected to represent the composite                  price behavior of all goods and services purchased by consumers.

            c. Weighting System - The weighting pattern uses the expenditures on various consumers’ items purchased by households as a proportion to total expenditure.

            d. Formula -The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, the Laspeyre’s formula with a fixed based year period (2006) weights.

           Inflation Rate is the rate of change of the CPI expressed in percent. Inflation is interpreted in terms of declining purchasing power of peso.

           Headline Inflation refers to the rate of change in the CPI, a measure of the average standard “basket” of goods and services consumed by a typical family.

           Purchasing Power of Peso shows how much the peso in the base period is worth in the current period. It is computed as the reciprocal of the CPI for the period under review multiplied                       by 100.