BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) reported that consumer price index of the region in December 2016 was at 144.2 which increased by 3.2 percent as compared to the 141 consumer price index during the same period the previous year.
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 PSA-CAR stated the CPI increased reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all the six provinces in the region. Among the provinces, Mountain Province registered the highest CPI last year at 153.6 followed by Ifugao at 151 and Benguet at 145.2 while Apayao had the lowest CPI at 132.4.
In terms of index point change, Ifugao had the highest increase by 7.2 while Apayao and Benguet had the lowest increase by 1.1 and 2.0, respectively.
Among the commodity groups, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest CPI in the region at 206.2 with the provinces of Apayao incurring the highest among the provinces at 220.2, followed by Kalinga and Abra at 219.8 and 216.7, respectively.
Education came next at 161.8 with Mountain Province incurring the highest index last year at 233.9, respectively.
The PSA-CAR report added food and other non-alcoholic beverages were at 160.2 with Benguet experiencing the highest at 166.6 followed by Mountain Province at 163.7 while communication had the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 83.2 with Abra incurring the highest index at 111.4 with Apayao having the lowest at 77.9.
Among the provinces, the PSA-CAR noted that Apayao consistently had the lowest CPI for all items with 132.4 index points.
By index points change, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest increase growing up by 14.0 points and increases were also incurred for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 5.5 points, clothing and footwear at 4.3 points, restaurant, miscellaneous goods and services at 2.7 points and transport at 2.6 points.
The PSA-CAR claimed the rest of the commodity groups reported a minimal annual increase in their index points while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels decreased by 0.6 points.
For December 2016, the PSA-CAR disclosed prices of goods and services in the region increased by 2.3 percent with Ifugao posting the highest inflation rate at 5.0 percent followed by Kalinga at 4.9 percent, Mountain Province at 2.4 percent, and Abra at 2.0 percent.
Compared to the previus year, the PSA-CAR explained price rates increased in all the provinces except for Mountain Province and Apayao.
The SA-CAR reported by commodity, the month on month growth of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index in the region increased by 06 percent as compared to 2.6 percent during the previous month while inflation rate in transport and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services is the highest among the other commodities with 0.8 percent increase, followed by clothing and footwear with 0.5 percent.
Further, communication and education continued to have a 9 inflation rate from November to December of 2016 while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels remain a negative inflation of 0.2 percent.
By food item year on year, the PSA-CAR stated vegetables was at 16.7 percent, corn was at 8.8 percent, and fish was at 5.8 percent and persisted to have the highest price increase for December 2016.
Meanwhile, other cereals and food products not elsewhere classified registered negative inflation rate of 0.7 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, the PSA-CAR revealed the purchasing power of the peso in the region for December 2016 was at 69 centavos, a decrease of 2 centavos from the 71 centavos in December 2015 which means that the one peso in December 2015 is worth 69 centavos last year.
According to the report, the purchasing power of the peso in all the provinces generally declined in December 2016 as compared to the previous year, except for Apayao which remained at 76 centavos.
The PSA-Car said Apayao had the highest peso value at 76 centavos followed by Abra at 74 centavos and Kalinga at 70 centavos while Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at 65 centavos.
By HENT
