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 June 2023 was 118.6. This was higher by 3.7 index points from the 114.9 CPI in June 2022 using 2018 as the base year.

The average prices of goods and services increased in Abra, Baguio City, and Kalinga. Meanwhile, it remained the same for the provinces of Apayao and Benguet as that of May 2023 CPI, and decreased in Ifugao, and Mountain Province.

Among the CAR provinces and HUC, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI in June 2023 with 123.9 index points, followed by Kalinga with 121.2 index points, and Apayao with 120.8 index points.

Meanwhile, the City of Baguio recorded the lowest CPI with 116.0 index points.

CPI by Commodity Group

Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 150.2 index points. Among the provinces, Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 176.2 index points followed by Mountain Province, Abra, and Apayao with 172.5, 168.7, and 154.2 index points, respectively.

Financial Services posted the second highest CPI in June 2023 among the commodity groups with 139.2 index points. Among the provinces, Abra had the highest index on Financial Services with 160.4 index points while Ifugao and Mountain Province had the lowest with 100.0 index points.

Restaurants and Accommodation Services registered the third highest CPI with 130.0 index points. Mountain Province recorded the highest index for this commodity with 159.3, followed by Apayao and Ifugao with 150.8 and 148.5 index points, respectively.

Information and Communication continued to incur the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region during the month of June 2023 with 102.0 index points. The province of Apayao posted the highest index on Information and Communication with 103.3 index points while Ifugao and Mountain Province both had the lowest with 99.9 index points.

Meanwhile, the CPI of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages ranked fifth among all commodity groups with 121.1 index points. Among the provinces and Highly Urbanized City (HUC), the City of Baguio recorded the highest index on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages with 127.7 index points. This was followed by Benguet, Mountain Province, and Kalinga with 123.5, 120.7, and 119.4 index points, respectively. On the other hand, the province of Abra incurred the least index on the commodity with 114.4.

By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco posted the highest increase with 11.2 points. This was followed by Restaurants and Accommodation Services and Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages both with 7.4 index point increases, respectively. Meanwhile, Information and Communication had the lowest increase with 0.1 point.

The CPI of Financial Services remained constant relative to its recorded index in the same month of the previous year. 

Inflation Rate

The average increase in the prices of goods and services in the region decelerated to 3.2 percent in June 2023, from 3.9 percent in March 2023. In addition, this was lower by 4.3 percentage points compared to the 7.5 percent inflation recorded in June 2022.

Out of the 13 commodity groups in the market basket of the region, ten posted lower inflation rates compared to June 2022. These were Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (6.6 percent); Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (8.1 percent); Clothing and Footwear (4.1 percent), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels (0.2 percent); Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (4.2 percent); Health (3.2 percent); Transport (-2.8 percent); Recreation, Sport and Culture (5.0 percent); Restaurants and Accommodation Services (6.0 percent); and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (4.5 percent).

On the other hand, Information and Communication (0.1 percent), Education Services (0.6 percent), and Financial Services (0.0 percent) remained the same as that of the May 2023 inflation rates.

Apayao posted the highest inflation rate in June 2023 with 4.7 percent followed by Abra with 4.1 percent and Benguet with 3.5 percent. Meanwhile, Kalinga incurred the lowest inflation among all CAR provinces and HUC with 2.2- percent.

Moreover, all CAR provinces and the City of Baguio recorded inflation rates that were lower than their June 2022 figures.

By Commodity Group

Inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages in 2023 was lower by 2.5 percentage points compared to the same month of the previous year.

Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest inflation rate among all commodity groups in the region with 8.1 percent in June 2023, followed by Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages and Restaurants and Accommodation Services with 6.6 and 6.0 percent, respectively.

Among all commodities, the rate of Information and Communication, Education, and Financial Services remained constant relative to the rate recorded in the previous month.

By Food Items, Year-on-Year

Among the food items, Corn recorded the highest CPI in the region in June 2023 with 171.1 index points. This was followed by Sugar, Confectionery and Desserts; Vegetables, Tubers, Plantains, Cooking Bananas and Pulses; and Fish and Other Seafood with 145.8, 137.5, and 136.3 index points, respectively.

In terms of inflation rate, Sugar, Confectionery and Desserts registered the highest rate with 32.1 percent, followed by Milk, Other Dairy Products, and Eggs with 14.9 percent and Vegetables, Tubers, Plantains, Cooking Bananas and Pulses with 14.2 percent. On the other hand, Meat and Other Parts of Slaughtered Land Animals recorded the lowest rate in June 2023 with 0.9 percent.

Purchasing Power of the Peso

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

The value of 1 peso in 2018 in the region was 84 centavos in June 2023. It decreased by three centavos from the 87 centavo worth of the peso in June 2022. Across provinces and HUC, Baguio City had the highest value with 86 centavos, higher than the regional value. This was followed by Abra with 85 centavos and Benguet with 84 centavos. The provinces of Apayao, Ifugao, and Kalinga had the same value with 83 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value with 81 centavos.

In the same manner, a hundred pesos in 2018 was worth 84 pesos in June 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 commonly purchased by the households.