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.

In general, the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces and the highly urbanized city (HUC) of CAR.

The CPI of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in January 2023 was 120.5 index points. This was higher by 8.8 index points from the 111.7 CPI index points of January 2022 using 2018 as the base year.

Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for January 2023 with 126.6 index points, followed by Kalinga with 125.3 index points, and Apayao with 121.1 index points.

Meanwhile, Baguio City posted the lowest CPI with 117.7 index points.
 

CPI by Commodity Groups

Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 145.6 index points. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 172.2 index points, followed by Mt. Province with 163.1 index points, and Abra with 160.7 index points.

Financial Services ranked second among the commodity groups in the region for January 2023 with 139.2 index points. Among the provinces, Abra had the highest CPI on this commodity with 160.4 index points while Ifugao and Mt. Province had the lowest both with 100.0 index points.

Transport registered the third highest CPI commodity group in the region with 131.6 index points. Benguet recorded the highest index for this commodity with 142.1 index points, followed by Apayao and Ifugao with 141.1 and 132.7 index points, respectively.

Information and Communication incurred the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of January 2023 with 102.0 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest index on this commodity with 103.2 index points, while Mountain Province had the lowest with 99.8 index points.

Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mountain Province incurred the highest CPI for All Items with 126.6 index points while Baguio City recorded the lowest CPI with 117.7 index points in January 2023.

By index point change, almost all commodity groups in January 2023 incurred increases in index point compared to the previous year. Transport recorded the highest increase with 18.4 index points. This was followed by Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 12.8 and 12.7 index points changes, respectively.

Financial Services posted no changes on index points in January 2023.

In January 2023, Transport recorded the highest increase of CPI with 16.3 percent from the same month the previous year. This was followed by Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 11.4 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

Financial Services incurred no increase of CPI for January 2023

CPI Market Basket

Since it is very difficult and costly to have periodic measures on the changes in the prices of all the thousands of varieties of goods and services purchased for consumption and services availed by households, a sample of these items, known as the “CPI market basket,” was selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services commonly purchased by consumers.

The Cordillera region contributed 1.63 percent share of the goods and services in the national market basket.
 

Among the goods and services in the market basket of the Cordillera region, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages had the highest percent share with 35.8 percent. This was followed by Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 25.7 percent, and Transport with 9.5 percent.

Financial Services had the least percent share in the market basket of CAR with only 0.1 percent.
 

Inflation Rate

The inflation of the prices of goods and services in the region increased to 7.9 percent in January 2023, from 7.7 percent in December 2022. This was higher by 3.7 percentage points compared to the inflation rate of the region in January 2022 at 4.2 percent.

The acceleration in the region’s inflation rate in January 2023 was brought about by the higher annual increase in the index for Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 11.4 percent, from 10.2 percent in the previous month. This was followed by Clothing and Footwear at 4.4 percent, and Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services at 3.5 percent. Higher annual hikes were also observed in the indices of the following commodity groups during the month:

1. Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, 3.9 percent;
2. Recreation, Sport and Culture, 4.5 percent, and
3. Restaurant and Accommodation Services, 6.8 percent;

Meanwhile, Financial Services retained its annual rate.

Among the provinces and HUC in the Cordillera region, Kalinga posted the highest inflation rate in January 2023 with 11.4 percent. This was followed by Apayao and Mountain Province with 10.3 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. Ifugao incurred the lowest inflation rate with 5.6 percent.

Most of the provinces and HUC in the Cordillera region recorded a higher inflation rate for January 2023, compared to the same month of the previous year using 2018 as the base year.

Benguet recorded a lower inflation rate from 7.2 percent in January 2022 to 6.9 percent in January 2023.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) in all the provinces generally weakened in January 2023 compared to the same month of the previous year.

The value of one (1) peso in the region was 83 centavos in January 2023. It dropped by seven (7) centavos from 90 centavos in January 2022. Among the provinces and HUC, Baguio City had the highest peso value with 85 centavos, followed by Abra, Apayao, Benguet, and Ifugao with 83 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value with 79 centavos.

The basket of goods in the Cordillera that could be bought with 100 pesos in January 2018 is worth 120.5 pesos in January 2023.

VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director

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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 100. It is the reference point of the index number series.

The CPI is now rebased to 2018 base year from the 2012 base year. The year 2018 was chosen as the next base year because it was the latest year when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) results were made available.

The rebasing of the CPI is done periodically by the PSA due to the following: 1) to ensure that the CPI market basket continues to capture goods and services commonly purchased by households over time; 2) to update expenditure patterns of households; 3) to synchronize its base year with 2018 base year of the Gross Domestic Product and other indices produced by PSA such as the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Agriculture; PPI for Manufacturing; and Value of Production Index (VaPI), Volume of Production Index (VoPI), and Value of Net Sales Index (VaNSI) for Manufacturing.

Market Basket (MB) is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bought by the households.