1. Philippines

Headline inflation in the Philippines eased to 6.3 percent in August 2022, after five consecutive months of acceleration. With this month’s inflation, the Philippine’s average inflation from January to August 2022 stood at 4.9 percent. In August 2021, inflation rate was posted at 4.4 percent.

The slowdown in inflation at the national level in August 2022 was primarily due to the lower annual increment recorded in the index for transport at 14.6 percent, from 18.1 percent in the previous month. This was followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages whose index declined by 6.3 percent year-on-year, from 6.9 percent in July 2022. The index for information and communication also exhibited lower annual growth at 0.4 percent, from 0.5 percent in July 2022.

2. Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)

Following the trend at the national level, inflation in CAR declined from 7.3 percent in July 2022 to 6.5 percent in August of the same year.

The decline of inflation in the region was primarily due to transport with an inflation rate of 25.0 percent in August 2022, alcoholic beverages and tobacco index at 9.3 percent, and restaurants and accommodation services at 7.0 percent.

Inflations of following commodity groups were also as follows:

1. Food and non-alcoholic beverages, 5.1 percent;
2. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, 5.4 percent;
3. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 4.3 percent;
4. Clothing and footwear, 3.2 percent;
5. Recreation, sport and culture, 3.1 percent;
6. Health, 2.9 percent;
7. Furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 3.0 percent
8. Education services, 0.8 percent
9. Information and communication, 0.4 percent

Financial services had zero percent inflation rate during the month.

3. Benguet

Similar to the trend at the national and regional level, inflation in Benguet declined from 9.5 percent in July 2022 to 7.9 percent in August of the same year.

Transport services posted the highest inflation rate among the commodity groups at 33.8 percent. It was followed by restaurant and accommodation services at 8.3 percent, and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services at 6.5 percent.

Contributing also to the inflation in the province were the following commodity groups:

1. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 6.4 percent;
2. Food and non-alcoholic beverages, 6.4 percent;
3. Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 4.2 percent;
4. Clothing and footwear, 5.2 percent;
5. Recreation, sport and culture, 3.5 percent;
6. Health, 3.6 percent
7. Furnishing, household equipment and routine household, 2.9 percent
8. Information and communication, 0.9 percent
9. Financial services, 0 percent
10. Education services, 0.1 percent

Note: CPIs and inflation rates by region, province and selected city are posted at the PSA website (https://openstat.psa.gov.ph/).