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 December 2017 was 146.8. This was higher by 2.6 index points from the 144.2 CPI of December 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:
December 2016 and December 2017
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for December 2017 at 158.3, followed by Ifugao at 153.0, and Benguet at 148.1. Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 134.0.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province incurred the highest increase at 4.7 index points, followed by Benguet and Abra with 2.9 and 2.2 points increase, respectively.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region at 222.6. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity at 240.3, followed by Abra, Apayao, and Benguet at 235.3, 233.9, and 221.0, respectively.
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for December 2017 at 167.5 index points. 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 162.0 index points. Benguet recorded the highest index on food and non-alcoholic beverages at 168.9, followed by Mountain Province and Ifugao at 166.7 and 162.0 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.3 index. The province of Abra incurred the highest index on communication with 111.4 index points, while Apayao had the lowest at 78.6 index points.
•  Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province consistently incurred the highest CPI for all items with 155.5, while the province of Apayao continued to have the lowest index at 134.0.

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

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 16.4 points.  Increases were also incurred in Education (5.7 points), Clothing & Footwear (4.0 points), and Housing, Water, Electricity, gas and Other Fuels (3.7 points).  The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

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

• Average increase in prices of goods and services in the region slowed down to 1.8 percent in December 2017.
• Mountain Province posted the highest inflation rate at 3.1 percent, followed by Benguet at 2.0 percent, and Abra at 1.6 percent.
• Inflation surpassed the December 2016 rate for the provinces of Apayao, Benguet and Mountain Province while other provinces had lower inflation rates in December 2017 as compared to the same month last year.

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

By Commodity Group, Year - on - Year

• Year-on-year inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index in the region accelerated to 1.1 percent from 0.5 percent in the previous month.
• Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco had the highest inflation among other commodities in the region with 8.0 percent, followed by Education, and Clothing and Footwear, with 3.5 and 3.0 percent, respectively.
• Meanwhile, inflation rates for Clothing and Footwear, Communication, Recreation and Culture, and Education were the same last month.

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

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Fish (8.2), Corn (6.3), and Meat (5.8) persisted to be the top three highest price increases in December 2017.
• Meanwhile, Fruits, Vegetables, Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery, and Food Products not elsewhere classified incurred negative inflation rates of 3.7 percent, 9.1 percent, 2.1 percent, and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Table4. Year - on Year Inflation Rates of Selected Food Items, CAR:
November 2017 and 2016; December 2017 and 2016(2006=100)

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was 68 centavos in December 2017. This dropped by one centavo from 69 centavos in December 2016.  This means that one peso in December 2006 is worth 68 centavos in December 2017.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought 100 pesos in 2006 is worth 147 pesos in December 2017.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in December 2017 as compared to December 2016.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 75 centavos, followed by Abra at 72 centavos, and Kalinga at 70 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 63 centavos.

Figure 3. Purchasing Power of Peso by Province,
CAR: December 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.