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 Highly Urbanized City (HUC) of CAR.

The CPI of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in July 2023 was 119.0 index points. This was higher by 3.4 index points from the 115.6 CPI index points in July 2022, using 2018 as base year.

Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mt. Province posted the highest CPI for July 2023 with 124.2 index points, followed by Kalinga with 121.6 index points, and Ifugao with 121.4 index points.

Meanwhile, Baguio City posted the lowest CPI with 116.2 index points.

CPI by Commodity Groups 

Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 151.0 index points. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 176.7 index points, followed by Mt. Province with 172.9 index points, and Abra with 171.1 index points.     

Financial Services ranked second among the commodity groups in the region in July 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 CPI, both with 100.0 index points.

Restaurants and Accommodation Services registered the third highest CPI commodity group in the region with 130.0 index points. Mt. Province recorded the highest CPI on this commodity with 158.4 index points, followed by Apayao and Ifugao with 150.8 index points, and 148.5 index points, respectively.   

Information and Communication incurred the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of July 2023 with 102.0 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 103.3 index points while Ifugao had the lowest CPI with 99.9 index points.

Among the provinces and HUC in the region, Mountain Province incurred the highest CPI for All Items with 124.2 index points while Baguio City recorded the lowest CPI with 
116.2 index points in July 2023.

By index point change, almost all commodity groups in July 2023 incurred increases in index point compared to the previous year.  Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest increase with 9.8 index points. This was followed by Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 8.2 and 6.8 index point changes, respectively.

Meanwhile, Financial Services posted no changes on index points in July 2023.

In July 2023, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages recorded the highest increase of CPI with 7.2 percent from the same month of the previous year. This was followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 6.9 percent, and Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 5.5 percent. 

Among all commodities, Financial Services recorded no increase of CPI for July 2023.

CPI Market Basket

Since it is virtually impossible 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 purchased by consumers.

The Cordillera region contributes 1.63 percent of 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 share with 35.8 percent. This was followed by Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, and Transport with 25.7 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.

Financial Services had the least 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 decelerated to 2.9 percent in July 2023, from 3.2 percent in June 2023. Meanwhile, this was higher by 4.4 percentage points compared to July 2022 with 7.3 percent.

Main Drivers to the Downward Trend of the Region’s Inflation

Out of the thirteen (13) commodity groups in the market basket of the region, nine (9) posted lower inflation rates compared to the previous month. These were Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (6.9 percent); Clothing and Footwear (3.7 percent); Housing, Water, Electricity Gas and Other Fuels (0.1 percent); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (3.9 percent); Health (2.9 percent); Transport (-5.5 percent); Recreation, Sport and Culture (4.3 percent); Restaurants and Accommodation Services (5.5 percent); and Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (4.2 percent).

On the other hand, higher inflation rates were observed in Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with 7.2 percent from 6.6 percent in June 2023.

The inflation rates of Information and Communication, Education Services, and Financial Services remained the same compared to the previous moth with 0.1 percent, 0.6 percent, and 0.0 percent, respectively.

Main Contributors to the Region’s Inflation

In terms of contribution to the July 2023 inflation rate in the Cordillera region, the main contributor was Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 84.9 percent of the market basket. This was followed by Restaurants and Accommodation Services, and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services with 7.2 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

Among the provinces and HUC in the region, Apayao posted the highest inflation rate in 
July 2023 with 4.3 percent. This was followed by Ifugao with 3.9 percent, and Mt. Province with 3.6 percent. Kalinga incurred the lowest inflation rate with 2.0 percent.

All provinces and HUC in the Cordillera region recorded lower inflation rates in July 2023 compared to the same month of the previous year.

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)

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

The value of one (1) peso in the region was 84 centavos in July 2023. It dropped by 
three (3) centavos from 87 centavos in July 2022. Among the provinces and HUC, Baguio City had the highest peso value with 86 centavos, followed by Abra and Benguet with 85 centavos and 84 centavos, respectively. Meanwhile, Mt. Province had the lowest peso value with 81 centavos.

The basket of goods and services in the Cordillera region that can be bought with 100 pesos in July 2018 was worth 119.0 pesos in July 2023.

(SGD)
VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director
______________________

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.