Consumer Price Index
For the province of Bohol, the generated Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Items in August 2017 was 152.3. This means that, on the average, a Boholano household spends Php152.30 in purchasing a typical market basket of goods and services in August. This value is higher by 0.3 percent than the previous month with a CPI of 151.9.
The commodity group Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco ranked first with a CPI of 219.5. This is primarily due to the CPI of the subgroup Tobacco that is 338.9. The same is observed for the CPI of this major commodity group last year but it is lower by 4.9.
Following are the commodity groups Clothing and Footwear and Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House with CPI of 161.7 and 161.0, respectively.
On the other hand, ranking last in terms of CPI is the commodity group Communication. As of this month, the generated CPI was 91.8. It is also noticeable that the price of the commodities belonging to this group did not move since the previous year except for the subgroup Telephone and Telefax Services having a 0.1 increase. Moreover, the subgroup Telephone and Telefax Equipment had the lowest CPI, that is, 52.8. This has also remained unchanged since last year.
Inflation Rate
This month, Bohol had a year-on-year Inflation Rate (IR) of 3.0. This resulted from a 4.5 increase in the CPI from August 2016 to August 2017. Figure 1 below shows the twelve-month trend of the inflation rate for the province. From the graph, a decline of 0.1 in the IR from July 2017 to August 2017 is observed. This implies a better performance in the economy since the price of commodities tends to increase at a slower rate.
From Table 1, Commodity groups Transport, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages are the fastest in terms of rate of increase in prices. For August, these groups had IR of 4.3, 4.0 and 3.4, respectively.
Under the commodity group Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages, the subgroups Fish and Fruits had IRs that were above 10. It has been consistent that these two commodities had the highest inflation rates. Supply and demand are the main players of the price movements of these commodities.
Other subgroups that had a sharp rise in price this month are Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Relating to the Dwelling and Operation of Personal Transport. The price of the former rose by 12.7 percent while that of the latter by 7.8 percent at a year’s time.
On the contrary, three subgroups under Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages had a negative inflation rate. These are Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery with -12.1 IR, Vegetables with -7.0 and Food N.E.C with -3.3.
To support the negative IR of the subgroup Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery, Figure 2 further shows that its CPI has been decreasing since January 2017.
Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)
Though the inflation rate dropped, the PPP still pegged at 0.66 since February of this year. This means that the movement of the prices for the past seven months has no significant effect on the value of the peso of the Boholanos.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The Philippine Statistics Authority monthly conducts a nationwide survey of prices for a given market basket of goods and services. Three vital indicators are generated, namely, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Inflation Rate and Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP).
(Sgd) JESSAMYN ANNE C. ALCAZAREN
Provincial Statistics Officer
