BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) stated the consumer price index (CPI) of the region increased by 1.5 points pegging it at 143.9 points in July this year compared to the 142.4 points last year which reflected the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces.
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.
Among the Cordillera provinces, Mountain Province posted the highest CPI for July 2017 at 155.9, followed by Ifugao at 151.5 points and Benguet at 144.1 points while Apayao posted the lowest CPI at 131.9 points.
In terms of index points change, Ifugao incurred the highest increase at 5.1 points followed by Mountain Province at 4.2 points.
On the other hand, among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest CPIC in the region at 217.7 pints while Kalinga incurred the highest CPI on the said commodity at 231.8 points, followed by Apayao, Abra and Benguet at 227.3, 224.3 and 219.7, respectively.
The PSA noted education registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for the same period at 166.1 points and among the provinces, Mountain Province had the highest index on education at 258.2, while Apayao had the lowest at 142.2 points.
Further, food and non-alcoholic beverages ranked third at 156.6 points and Mountain Province experienced the highest index on the said commodity at 163.3, followed by Ifugao and Benguet at 160 and 159.7, respectively.
The PSA reported communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.3 points with Abra incurring the highest index on the said commodity at 111.4 points while Apayao had the lowest at 78.1 points and among the Cordillera provinces, Mountain Province consistently incurred the highest CPI for all items with 155.9 points, while Apayao continued to have the lowest at 131.9 points.
By index point change, the PSA-CAR revealed alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest which increased by 15.8 points and increases were also incurred for education at 4.3 points, and clothing and footwear at 4.0 points while the rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases in their index points.
The CPI includes increases in electricity, gas and other fuels, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house and miscellaneous goods and services.
The PSA-CAR frequently comes out with its detailed report on the CPI regionwide to provide the necessary update on the status of the change in the retail prices of goods and services in the six provinces of the region compared to the same period during the previous year.
By HENT