BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) revealed that prices of goods and services in the region weakend by 1.1 percent this year compared to the same period last year.
Based on the data obtained from the PSA-CAR, Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate at 3.5 percent, followed by Mountain Province at 2.8 percent, and Kalinga at 2.6 percent.
The PSA noted inflation surpassed the July 2016 rate for Ifugao while other provinces had lower inflation rates in July 2017 as compared to the same month last year.
By commodity group year on year, the PSA-CAR explained the year on year inflation rate of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index in the region slowed down at 03 percent from 1.6 percent in the previous month.
The report stipulated alcoholic beverages and tobacco registered the highest inflation rate among other commodities in the region with 7.8 percent increase, followed by clothing and footwear, and education with 3.0 and 2.7 percent increases, respectively.
In a related development, the PSA-CAR stipulated inflation rates for communication, recreation and culture, education and restaurants and miscellaneous goods and services were the same last year.
By food item year on year, corn was at 4.3 percent, meat – 3.8 percent, fish – 3.7 percent, oil and fats – 2.4 percent and milk, cheese and eggs – 2.3 percent and they persisted to have the highest price increases in July 2017.
Meanwhile, vegetables, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionary food products not elsewhere classified and fruits incurred negative inflation rates of 10.5 percent, 0.9 percent, 5.5 percent, and 0.2 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, the PSA-CAR reported the value of the peso in the region was at P0.69 in July 2017 which dropped by P0.01 from the P0.70 recorded purchasing power of the peso in July 2016.
According to the PSA-CAR, it only means that P1.00 in July 2016 is worth P0.69 in July 2017 whereby a basket of goods that can be bought P100 in July 2016 is worth P145 in July 2017.
Moreover, the PSA-CAR stipulated the purchasing power of the peso in all the provinces generally weakened in July 2017 as compared to July 2016.
Apayao had the highest peso value at P0.76, followed by Abra at P0.73, and Kalinga at P0.71.
Subsequently, Mountain Province had the lowest peso value at P0.64 while the other areas had stable purchasing power of the peso through the 12-month period.
The PSA-CAR explained inflation rate is the rate of change in the average price level between two periods as measured by the consumer price index while the purchasing power of the peso measures how much the peso in the reference year is worth in another year.
The PSA-CAR also defined the base year as the reference point of the index number series, at which the index number series is set to zero and marked basket is a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services produced or bought.
By HENT
