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 September 2017 was 145.1. This was higher by 2.8 index points from the 142.3 CPI of September 2016.

• 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:
September 2016 and September 2017
(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for September 2017 at 157.2, followed by Ifugao at 152.5, and Benguet at 145.6. Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 131.9.
• In terms of index point change, Mountain Province incurred the highest increase at 5.3 points, followed by Ifugao with 4.6 points increase. 

Consumer Price Index by Commodity Groups

• Among the commodity groups, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco had the highest CPI in the region at 219.2. The province of Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on this commodity at 235.1, followed by Abra, Apayao, and Benguet at 228.1, 227.7, and 220.6, respectively
• Education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for September 2017 at 167.5 index. 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 158.9 index points. Mountain Province recorded the highest index on food and non-alcoholic beverages at 165.9, followed by the province of Benguet and Ifugao at 163.6 and 161.4 index points, respectively.
• Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.3 index. Abra province incurred the highest index on this commodity at 111.4 points, while Apayao had the lowest at 78.3 index.
• Among the CAR provinces, Mountain Province consistently incurred the highest CPI for all items with 157.2 index, while the province of Apayao continued to have the lowest index at 131.9 points.

Table2. Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group and by Province, CAR:
September 2017(2006=100)

                  Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

• By index point change, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 16.4 points. Increases were also incurred for Education (5.7 points), and Clothing & Footwear (4.3 points). The rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases.

Figure 1. Year-on-Year Consumer Price Index by Commodity Group,
CAR: September 2016 and September 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

• Prices of goods and services in the region rose by 2.0 percent in September 2017  
• Mountain Province posted the highest inflation rate at 3.5 percent, followed by Ifugao at 3.1 percent, and Kalinga at 2.8 percent.
• Inflation surpassed the September 2016 rate for the province of Benguet, Kalinga and Mountain Province; while other provinces had lower inflation rates in September 2017 as compared to the same month last year.

Figure 2. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Province,
CAR: September2016 and September 2017 (2006=100)

By Commodity Group, Year - on - Year

• By commodity, the year-on-year inflation rate of the heavily-weighted Food and Non- Alcoholic Beverages index in the region decelerated at 1.5 percent from 2.2 percent in the previous month.
• Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco had the highest inflation among other commodities in the region with 8.1 percent increase, followed by Education, and Clothing and Footwear with 3.5 and 3.2 percent increases, respectively.
• Meanwhile, inflation rates for Furnishing, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House, Communication, Recreation & Culture, Education, and Restaurants and Miscellaneous Goods and Services were the same last year.

Table 3. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Groups,
CAR: Augustand September 2017 (2006 = 100)

By Food Items, Year - on - Year

• Corn (5.5), Meat (4.7), Oil and Fats (3.4), and Fish (3.0) persisted to have the highest price increases in September 2017.
• Meanwhile, Vegetables, Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery, and Food Products not elsewhere classified consecutively incurred negative inflation rates of 4.5, 1.3 percent, and 4.8 percent, respectively.

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

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

• The value of the peso in the region was at 69 centavos in September 2017. This dropped by one centavo from 70 centavos in September 2016. This means that one peso in September 2006 is worth 69 centavos in September 2017.
• In other words, a basket of goods that can be bought 100 pesos in September 2006 is worth 145 pesos in September 2017.
• The PPP in all the provinces generally weakened in September 2017 as compared to September 2016.
• Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos, followed by Abra at 73 centavos, and Kalinga at 71 centavos. Meanwhile, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 64 centavos.

Figure 3. Purchasing Power of Peso by Province,
CAR: September 2016 and  2017 (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.