Consumer Price Index

• The 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 Consumer Price Index of CAR in February, 2016 was 140.9, higher by 2.6 index points from last year’s 138.3.
• Generally, CPI increases in all the provinces reflecting the increases in the average prices of goods and services.

Table1. Consumer Price Index by Province, CAR:
February 2015 and February 2016
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the provinces, Mt. Province posted the highest CPI at 149.8 followed by Ifugao at 145.8 and Benguet at 142.2. On the other hand, Apayao posted the lowest at 132.3.
• In terms of index point change, Mt. Province reported the highest at 8.1 while Benguet had the least at 1.1.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest CPI with 197.2 in the region with Apayao contributing the highest with 217.1 followed by Abra and Kalinga at 202.9 and 201.3, respectively.
• Education had the second highest CPI at 159.9 index points. Among the provinces, Mt. Province had the highest with 228.8.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages came next with Benguet having the most at 159.0 followed by Mt. Province at 158.4.
• Communication had the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with Abra posting the highest index at 111.4 while Apayao had the lowest at 77.7.
• Across provinces, Apayao posted the lowest index for all items.

Table2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR:
March 2016(2006=100)

• By index point change, education recorded the highest change at 12.5 points. This was followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco and food and non-alcoholic beverages at 10.7 and 3.4 points, respectively.
• The rest of the commodity groups reported a minimal annual increase in their index points. On the other hand, transport now had a negative percent change.

Figure 1. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group,
CAR: March 2015 and March 2016 (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

• The overall change in prices of goods and services in February 2016 in CAR was a decrease of 1.9 percent, lower by 0.3 percentage points from February 2015.
• Mt. Province posted the highest inflation with 5.7 percent increased brought about by increases in education followed by Kalinga and Ifugao with both 2.8 percent.
• Compared last year, the rates of price increases slowed down in Apayao, and Benguet.

By Commodity Group, Month - on - Month

• By commodity, the year-on-year growth of the heavily-weighted food and nonalcoholic beverages index in the Cordillera accelerated to 2.3 percent compared to the previous month.
• Inflation in education remained the highest in the region with 8.5 percent. Followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 5.7 percent.
• For housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels that post to had a negative annual rate, accelerated to 0.2 percent. While, the transport index dropped to -0.5 percent.

Table 3. Month-on-Month Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups,
CAR: February and January 2016 (2006 = 100)

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Generally, for the year-on-year inflation rates modestly accelerated for all food items.
• Vegetables and Bread and Cereals (Corn) persisted to have the highest price increases in February 2016 with 8.0 and 7.6 percent, respectively.
• The lower prices of meat contributed to continued negative annual inflation rates of the commodity.

Table5. Year - on Year Inflation Rates of Selected Food Items, CAR:
Marchand February 2016 and 2015(2006=100)

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in CAR dropped to 71 centavos from last year’s 72 centavos. Meaning, that market value of goods and services worth 71 centavos in February, 2006 were bought at one peso in February 2016.
• Compared to February 2015, the PPP of all the provinces decreased.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos followed by Abra at 75 centavos and Kalinga at 73 centavos. Meanwhile, Mt. Province had the lowest peso value at 66 centavos.

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.