Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Top the Index

By commodity group, Figure 1 shows that Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco has the highest among the thirteen major commodity groups with consumer price index of 163.1 for the month of November 2022. Among its subgroups, tobacco has the highest price index with 212.0 index points while other vegetable-based tobacco products has a price index of 156.5 for the month of November 2022.

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Restaurant and Accommodation Services ranked second among the commodity groups with 155.8 index points. Food and Beverage Serving Services has the highest index points with 163.6 among its subgroups followed by Accommodation Services with 125.4 index points.

Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels ranked third with index points of 140.6. Among its subgroups, electricity, gas and other fuels has the highest index points of 160.9 followed by maintenance, repair and security of the dwelling with index points of 129.3.

Health with index points of 107.3 while Information and Communication incurred the lowest CPI in the province during the month with index point of 99.8.

CPI for All Items Shows an Upward Trend

Figure 2 shows the consumer price index for All Items in the province for the month of November 2021 and 2022. The indices for All Items showed an increasing trend for the said month with index points 113.9, and 125.1 in that order.

By index point change, All Items has an increase of 11.2 from 113.9 index points in November 2021 to 125.1 in the same month of 2022.

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Transport recorded the highest increase with 21.2 points followed by Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; Restaurants and Accommodation Services, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco which increased by 18.6, 18.3 and 13.6 index points respectively.

Financial Services did not show changes in index points while health decreased by 0.1 index points.

Inflation Rate by Month

Inflation in Mountain Province declined from 10.0 percent in October 2022 down to 9.8 percent in November 2022. In November of the previous year, inflation was lower at 4.9 percent. (Figure 3)

The deceleration in the inflation rate in November 2022 was primarily due to the lower annual growths in the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 15.2; transport at 18.6 and clothing and footwear with index at 5.5 percent respectively

The following commodity groups also contributed to the downward trend of the inflation for the said month:

a. Health, -0.9 percent;

b. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and service, 2.6 percent and

c. Information and communication, 0.5 percent.

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On the contrary, inflation rates were higher for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 9.6 percent followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 9.1 percent and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at 6.3 percent respectively. The rest of the commodity groups changed in a minimal rate.

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) Slides

The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in the province for the month of November 2022 remained at 0.80 centavos from its preceding month and decreased by 8 centavos compared to the same month of the previous year. Thus, hundred pesos in 2018 is worth 80 pesos for the month of November 2022. (Figure 4)

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Technical Notes

Consumer Price Index (CPI) A single number used to measure changes in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by an average Filipino household. It shows how much on the average, prices of goods and services have increased or decreased from a particular reference period known as base year.

The CPI measures the changes in the price level of goods and services that most people buy for their day-to-day consumption relative to a base year (currently at year 2018)

It is widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of the peso. Changes in the CPI over a specified period of time (usually a month or a year), is the rate of inflation. Inflation is equivalent to a decline in the purchasing power of peso (PPP).

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) gives an indication of the real value of the peso (how much it is worth) in a given period relative to its value in a base period. Or it measures how much the peso in the reference year is worth in another year.

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).

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.

The monthly Consumers Price Index is computed based on the average retail prices of goods and services collected during the first week and mid-month of the reference month.

Retail Price - the actual price at which retailers sell a commodity on spot or earliest delivery, usually in small quantities for consumption and not for resale. It is confined to transactions on cash basis in the free market and excludes black-market prices and prices of commodities that are on sale as in summer sales, anniversary sales, Christmas sales, etc.