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 2021 was 130.0. This was higher by 5.7 index points from the 124.3 CPI of December 2020 using 2012 as the 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 in December 2021 with 135.8 followed by Benguet with 131.0 and Apayao with 129.7. On the other hand, Abra posted the lowest CPI with 125.2.

CPI by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverage and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 267.5 index points. Province-wise, Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 459.9 index points followed by Abra, Kalinga, and Ifugao with 370.3, 360.7, and 276.0 index points, respectively.
• Clothing and Footwear posted the second highest CPI in December 2021 among the commodity groups with 133.9 index points. Among the provinces, Kalinga had the highest index on clothing and footwear with 143.2 while Apayao had the lowest with 127.7 index points.

• Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages registered the third highest CPI with 133.0 index points. Benguet recorded the highest index on food and non-alcoholic beverages with 137.6 followed by Kalinga and Mountain Province with 136.3 and 126.7 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to incur the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of December 2021 with 103.1 index points. The province of Kalinga posted the highest index on communication with 105.1 index points while Mountain Province had the lowest with 98.0 index points.
• Among the CAR provinces, Kalinga recorded the highest index for all items with 135.8 while Abra garnered the lowest with 125.2 in December 2021.
• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco posted the highest increase (15.4 points). Increases were observed in all commodity groups except for Education that remained constant relative to the index of the same month of the previous year.

Inflation Rate

• The average increase in the prices of goods and services in the region was 4.6 percent in December 2021, higher by 1.4 percentage points compared to the 3.2 percent inflation in December 2020.
• Benguet posted the highest inflation rate in December 2021 with 5.5 percent followed by Mountain Province and Kalinga with 4.9 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. Conversely, Apayao incurred the lowest inflation among all CAR provinces with 1.6 percent.
• The provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province recorded inflation rates that were higher than the regional rate in December 2021.

By Commodity Group

• Inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages in December 2021 was lower by 0.2 percentage points compared to the same month of the previous year.
• Transport services recorded the highest inflation rate among all commodity groups in the region with 7.7 percent in December 2021 followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 6.1 percent and Restaurant and Miscellaneous Goods and Services with 5.4 percent.
• Among all commodities, the rates of Education and Communication remained constant relative to the rates recorded in the previous month.

By Food Items, Year-on-Year

• Among the food items, Corn recorded the highest CPI in the region in December 2021 with 200.3 index points. This was followed by Meat, Fruits, and Vegetables with 154.4, 153.1, and 152.1 index points, respectively.
• By index point change, Meat recorded the highest with 18.2. Corn followed with 16.1 index point increase followed by Fish with 7.4 index point increase. On the other hand, Jams, which include sugar, honey, chocolate, and confectionery, posted the least index point change with 1.0-point increase.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

• The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in all the provinces generally weakened in December 2021 compared to the same month of the previous year.
• The value of 1 peso in the region was 77 centavos in December 2021. It dropped by three centavos from the 80-centavo worth of the peso in December 2020. Across provinces, Abra had the highest value at 80 centavos, even higher than the regional value. This was followed by Mountain Province at 78 centavos. Meanwhile, Kalinga had the lowest peso value at 74 centavos.
• In the same manner, a hundred pesos in 2012 was worth 77 pesos in December 2021.

Figure 7. Worth of a Hundred Pesos by Province, CAR:

December 2021 (2012=₱100)