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 March 2016 was 141.1, higher by 2.7 index points from last year’s 138.4.
• Generally, CPI increases in all the provinces reflecting the increase in the average prices of goods and services.

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

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI at 150.3 followed by Ifugao at 147.2 and Benguet at 142.3. Apayao had the lowest CPI at 132.1.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province experienced the highest increase at 8.0, while Benguet had the least at 1.1 compared to the same period in 2015.

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest CPI with 198.3 in the region. Among the provinces, Apayao was the highest with 217.9 followed by Abra and Kalinga at 204.5 and 202.8 index points, respectively.
• Education came next at 159.9 index points. Among the provinces, Mt. Province incurred the highest index for the month at 228.8.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages were at 154.6 index point with Benguet experiencing the highest at 159.9, followed by Mountain Province at 159.7.
• Communication had the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with Abra having 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)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• 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 11.4 and 4.3 points, respectively.
• The rest of the commodity groups reported a minimal annual increase in their index points. On the other hand, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels decreased by 1.1 points.

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 March 2016 in CAR was a decrease of 2.0 percent, lower by 0.5 percentage points from March 2015 at 2.5 percent.
• Mt. Province posted the highest inflation with 5.6 percent, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from last year’s 2.0 percent, followed by Ifugao, Kalinga and Abra with 3.8, 2.9 and 2.4 percent, respectively.
• As compared last year, the rates of price decreases 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 2.9 percent compared to 2.3 during the previous month.
• Inflation in education remained the highest in the region with 8.5 percent. Followed by alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 6.1 percent.
• For transport that posted a negative rate last month, accelerated to 0.2 percent; while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rates dropped to -0.8%.

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

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Generally, the year-on-year inflation rates modestly accelerated for all food items.
• Vegetables and Corn persisted to have the highest price increases in March 2016 with 8.6 and 8.0 percent, respectively.
• The lower prices of meat contributed to continued negative annual inflation rate 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.This means that the market value of goods and services worth 71 centavos in March 2006 were bought at one peso in March 2016.
• Compared to March 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, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 67 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.