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 January 2018 was 147.6. This was higher by 3.8 index points from the 143.8 CPI of January 2017.
• 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:
January 2017 and 2018
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for January 2018 at 160.5, followed by Ifugao at 154.1, and Benguet at 148.6. Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 134.4.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province incurred the highest increase at 6.4 index points, followed by Benguet and Ifugao with 4.3 and 2.9 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 227.4. The province of Abra incurred the highest CPI on this commodity at 246.6, followed by Kalinga, Apayao, and Benguet at 240.9, 239.2, and 223.7, respectively.
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for January 2018 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 163.1 index points. Benguet recorded the highest index on food and non-alcoholic beverages at 169.4, followed by Mountain Province and Ifugao at 167.6 and 164.1 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 160.5, while the province of Apayao continued to have the lowest index at 134.4.

Table2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR:
January 2018 (2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 19.4 points. Increases were also incurred in Education (5.7 points), Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages (4.7 points), and Clothing & Footwear (4.1 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 accelerated to 2.6 percent in January 2018.
• Mountain Province posted the highest inflation rate at 4.2 percent, followed by Benguet at 3.0 percent, and Ifugao at 1.9 percent.
• Inflation surpassed the January 2017 rates for the provinces of Apayao, Benguet and Mountain Province while other provinces had lower inflation rates in January 2018 relative to the same month last year.

Figure 2. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province,
CAR: January 2017 and January 2018 (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 3.0 percent from 1.1 percent in the previous month.
• Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco had the highest inflation among other commodities in the region with 9.3 percent, followed by Education with 3.5 percent.
• Meanwhile, inflation rates for Clothing and Footwear, and Education were the same last month.

Table 3. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups,
CAR: December 2017 and January 2018  (2006 = 100)

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Fish (9.3), Corn (8.3), and Meat (6.0) persisted to be the top three highest price increases in January 2018.
• Meanwhile, Vegetables, Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery, and Food Products not elsewhere classified incurred negative inflation rates of 1.1 percent, 2.0 percent, and 2.0 percent, respectively.

Table4. Year - on Year Inflation Rates of Selected Food Items, CAR:
December 2017 and 2016; January 2018 and 2017(2006=100)

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was 68 centavos in January 2018. This dropped by two centavos from 70 centavos in January 2017. This means that one peso in January 2006 is worth 68 centavos in January 2018.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought 100 pesos in 2006 is worth 147 pesos in January 2018.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in January 2018 as compared to January 2017.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 74 centavos, followed by Abra at 72 centavos, and Kalinga at 69 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 62 centavos.

Figure 3. Purchasing Power of Peso by Province,
CAR: January 2017 and 2018 (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.