Consumer Price Index (CPI)

For the province of Bohol, the generated Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Items in the last four months of 2017 continued to rise. For December, the CPI was reported at 154.3, highest for the year, and is 4.1 points higher than that of January.

From Figure 1, generally, the CPI had an increasing trend for the year. The only month with a negative percent change was that of June wherein it decreased with 0.1 percentage point from May. In contrast, the sharpest rise of CPI was recorded during October to November with a 0.8 month-on-month increase.

By examining the major commodity groups, the top three that contributed to the sharp rise in the November CPI were Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages, Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House, and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels. These three commodity groups increased for at least 1.0 percentage points from their October CPIs.

It is also noticeable that the CPI of the commodity group Communication moved-up for the first time after more than a year.

Inflation Rate (IR)

The IR for the last quarter of the year stabilized at 3.0, 0.2 points lower than that of September. 

On a yearly basis, the highest Inflation Rate was recorded at 3.7 during the month of February whereas the lowest was 2.9 in June.

The commodity group that highly contributed to the peak of the 2017 Inflation Rate was Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages with a 5.3 IR. Following this were Housing, Water, Electricity Gas and Other Fuels, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco with IRs 3.6 and 3.2, respectively.

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

With the continuing rise in CPI, the Purchasing Power of the Peso of Boholanos decreased to 0.65 starting September 2017 until the end of the year. This further implies that with the same budget, the amount of goods that can be purchased further deteriorates.

(Sgd.) JOCELYN S. SARMIENTO

Supervising Statistical Specialist