• 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 2019 was 120.4. This was higher by 3.3 index points from the 117.1 CPI of December 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 December 2019 at 125.9, followed by Apayao at 123.9, and Benguet at 120.4 while Mountain Province posted the lowest CPI at 117.7.

CPI by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 228.9 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 364.8 index points, followed by Abra, Kalinga, and Ifugao at 298.1, 282.5, and 230.1 index points, respectively.
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for December 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 index points.
• Clothing and Footwear ranked third at 126.6 index points. Kalinga recorded the highest index on clothing and footwear at 134.7, followed by Ifugao and Benguet at 130.2 and 126.0 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 101.6 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest index on communication with 105.3 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 125.9, while Mountain Province garnered the lowest index at 117.7 in December 2019.

Figure 2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province,

CAR: December 2019 (2012=100)

 

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest increase at 19.3. Increases were also incurred in Education (6.2 points), Clothing and Footwear (5.9 points), and Restaurant and Miscellaneous goods and services (4.8 points). The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

Inflation Rate

• The average increase in the prices of goods and services in the region slowed down to 2.8% in December 2019 from the 3.4% in December 2018.
• Mountain Province posted the highest inflation rate in December 2019 at 4.2%, followed by Benguet at 2.7%. Apayao incurred the lowest inflation among all provinces with 1.7%.
• All of the provinces had lower inflation rates in December 2019 except for the province of Mountain Province.

• Inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages index in the region increased from the November 2019 rate of 0.1 to 1.8 in December 2019.
• Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco remained to have the highest inflation in December 2019 among other commodities in the region with 9.2%, followed by Education with 5.1% and Clothing and Footwear with 4.9%.
• Among all other commodities, Communication incurred the lowest inflation rate at 0.2%.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was 83 centavos in December 2019. It dropped by two centavos from 85 centavos in December 2018. This means that one peso in 2012 is worth 83 centavos in December 2019.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought with 100 pesos in December 2012 is worth 120.4 pesos in December 2019.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in December 2019 compared to the same month of the previous year.
• Mountain Province had the highest peso value at 85 centavos, followed by Abra and Ifugao both at 84 centavo-peso value. Meanwhile, Kalinga had the lowest peso value at 79 centavos.