BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) disclosed that the consumer price index in the region in November last year increased by 2 points compared to the recorded consumer price index during the same period the previous year.
The PSA-CAR explained that consumer price index 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 where the consumer price index of the region in November last year was said to be 120 compared to the 118 points during the same period the previous year.
Among the Cordillera provinces, Kalinga posted the highest consumer price index for November last year at 125.1, followed by Apayao at 123.4 and Benguet at 120.1 while Abra posted the lowest consumer price index at 117.4 points.
On the other hand, alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest consumer price index in the region with 226.4 points wherein Apayao incurred the highest index on the said commodity with 364.2 points followed by Abra, Kalinga and Ifugao with 287.9, 278.5 and 220.7 points, respectively.
The PSA-CAR added that education recorded the second highest consumer price index among the commodity groups in the region in November last year with 128 index points wherein Kalinga had the highest index on education with 193.9 points while Apayao had the least index with 65.7 points.
Further, clothing and footwear ranked third among the commodity groups that recorded an increase in consumer price index with 126 points wherein Kalinga recorded the highest index points change with 133 followed by Ifugao and Benguet with 128.8 and 125.8 index points, respectively.
According to the PSA-CAR report, communication continued to have the lowest consumer price index among the commodity groups in the region with 101. Index points wherein Apayao incurred the highest index change on communication with 105.7 index points while Mountain Province had the lowest with 98.1 index points.
Among the Cordillera provinces, Kalinga recorded the highest consumer price index for all items with 125.1 points while Abra registered the least index points for the same items in November last year with 117.4 index points.
The PSA-CAR stipulated that by index points change, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest increase at 17.4 index points and increases were also incurred in education at 6.2 points, clothing and footwear at 5.3 points and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services at 4.6 points.
The PS-CAR report stated that the rest of the commodity groups reported minimal annual increases on their index points as measured by the concerned government agencies in charge of the same.
The base year of the consumer price index was made on the 2012 level after the adjustments were done on the base year considering the changes in the prices of the different commodities as per the previous year which was made in 2006.
By HENT
