BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) disclosed that the inflation rate in the region slowed down to 1.7 percent in November last year from the .5 percent inflation rate registered in November the previous year.
The PSA-CAR explained that inflation is the average increase in the prices of goods and services prevailing in the region during a prescribed period.
Based on the data obtained from the PSA-CAR, Mountain Province posted the highest inflation rate in November last year at 4.4 percent, followed by Abra at 1.6 percent while Kalinga registered the lowest inflation rate with 0.9 percent among all the Cordillera provinces.
Further, the PSA-CAR stated that all the Cordillera provinces had lower inflation rates in November 2019 except for Mountain province.
Among the food items, corn recorded the highest consumer price index in the region in November last year with 166.5 points followed by fruits, vegetables and fish with 141.1, 130 and 128.6 index points, respectively.
By index points change, fish recorded the highest increase by 7.6 points followed by fruits with 6 index points increase, oils and fats with points among others.
On the other hand, the PS-CAR revealed that the value of the peso in the region was P0.83 in November last year which dropped by P.02 from the P0.8 in November the previous year which means that P1 in 212 is worth P0.83 in November last year.
The PSA-CAR explained that it also means that a market basket of goods that can be bought with P100 in December 2012 is worth P120 in November last year.
According to the PSA-CAR report, the purchasing power of the peso in all the provinces in the region generally weaned in November last year compared to the same month of the previous year.
The PSA-CAR sated that the purchasing power of the peso measures how much the peso in the reference year is worth in another year while the base year is the reference point of the index number series at which the index number is set to 100.
The PSA-CAR asserted that rebasing the consumer price index is necessary to ensure that the barometer of economic phenomena is truly reflective of current situation.
It has been reported that consumer taste, fashion and technology change over time causing the fixed market basket of goods and services to become outmoded.
The PSA-CAR claimed that to capture such changes for a more meaningful price comparison, revision or updating of the fixed market basket, sample outlets, weight, and base year had to be done periodically.
The consumer price index is an indicator that derives its usefulness in its representation of how much a typical market basket behaves over a specific period of time.
Market basket is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bough by the people.
The PSA is the government agency tasked to come out with periodic reports on the status of various economic indicators using available statistics that will serve as a guide for policy makers and decision makers in the formulation of policies, programs and projects that will improve the country’s economy.
By HENT