• 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 2020 was 124.3. This was higher by 3.9 index points from the 120.4 CPI of December 2019 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 2020 at 130.5, followed by Apayao at 127.7, and Ifugao at 124.6 while Mountain Province posted the lowest CPI at 121.5.

CPI by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 252.1 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 434.2 index points, followed by Abra, Kalinga, and Ifugao at 350.7, 335.8, and 261.6 index points, respectively.
• Clothing and Footwear ranked second among the commodity groups in the region for December 2020 at 130.7 index points. Among the provinces, Kalinga had the highest index on clothing and footwear at 140.3, while Apayao had the lowest at 126.1 index points.
• Education registered the third highest CPI at 128.9 index points. Kalinga recorded the highest index on education at 193.9, followed by Mountain Province and Benguet at 129.4 and 128.5 index points, respectively.
• Communication incurred the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of December 2020 with 102.3 index points. The province of Abra incurred the highest index on communication with 105.0 index points, while Mountain Province had the lowest with 98.0 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces, Kalinga incurred the highest CPI for all items with 130.5, while Mountain Province garnered the lowest index at 121.5 in December 2020.

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest increase at 23.2 index points. Increases were also incurred in Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages (6.5 points), Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (4.8 points), Clothing and Footwear (4.1 points). The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

• The average increase in the prices of goods and services in the region was 3.2% in December 2020, higher that the inflation of 2.8% in December 2019.
• Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate in December 2020 with 4.4%, followed by Kalinga 3.7%. Abra incurred the lowest inflation among all CAR provinces with 3.0%.
• Only Mountain Province had lower inflation rate for December 2020 compared to December 2019. All remaining provinces recorded higher inflation rates for December 2020 compared to December 2019.

Figure 4. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province,

CAR: December 2019 and 2020 (2012=100)

 

By Commodity Group

• Inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages increased by 2.3 percentage points from the November 2020 rate of 3.1% to 5.4% in December 2020.
• Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco remained to have the highest inflation rate among other commodities in the region with 10.1% in December 2020 followed by Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 5.4%, and Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services with 4.0%.

Figure 5. Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups, CAR: December 2020 (2012=100)

• Among all other commodities, Transport incurred the deflation (decrease in the general price level of goods and services; occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% - a negative inflation rate) with 2.2%.

By Food Items, Year-on-Year

• Among the food items, Corn recorded the highest CPI in the region in December 2020 with 184.2. This was followed by Fruits, Vegetables, and Fish with 149.4, 148.3, and 143.8 index points, respectively.
• By index point change, Vegetables recorded the highest with 22.6. Corn followed with 14.1 index point increase followed by Meat with 12.3.