Inflation Rate in Camiguin Decelerated Further to 3.5% 

The inflation rate in the province of Camiguin continued its deceleration, easing to 3.5 percent in January 2024 from 3.7 percent in December 2023. This development contributes to the province's year-to-date inflation, which now stands at 3.5 percent. (Table A and Figure 1)

The five provinces in Northern Mindanao continue to see a decrease in their inflation rates in January 2024, with Lanao del Norte recording the highest decrease of 3.2 percentage points, bringing its inflation rate to 2.8 percent in January 2024, down from 6.0 percent in December 2023. Moreover, Misamis Occidental recorded the lowest inflation rate at 0.2 percent, reflecting a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the previous month.

Furthermore, in January 2024, Camiguin, Bukidnon, and Misamis Oriental also posted lower inflation rates at 3.5 percent, 5.2 percent, and 3.4 percent, respectively. These figures mark a decrease from their inflation rates in December 2023, which stood at 3.7 percent, 6.3 percent, and 5.1 percent, respectively. (Figure 2)

Figure 2 presents the annual inflation rates of the provinces in Region X in December 2023.

The province's lower inflation rate was primarily driven by a reduction in the Financial services sector, declining from 0 percent in December to -11.1 percent in January. This represents a contraction of 11.1 percentage points within the month. Additionally, various other groups also observed a decline in their annual inflation rates during January 2024.:

     • Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 10.2 percent, from 10.8 percent; 
     • Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, -2.1 percent, from 0.5 percent; 
     • Recreation, sports and culture, 2.0 percent, from 2.6 percent; 
     • Restaurants and accommodation services, 0.5 percent, from 2.3 percent 
     • Personal care and miscellaneous goods and services, 2.1 percent, from 3.2 percent;

In comparison, higher inflation rates were observed in several indices. Notably, the index for Clothing and footwear increased to 3.4 percent, up by 2.2 percentage points compared to December. Similarly, Food and non-alcoholic beverages experienced a rise to 8.9 percent, marking a 0.5 percentage point increase from the previous month. Other commodities registering higher inflation rates in December 2023 include Furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance of the house at 3.3 percent, Health at 1.7 percent, and Education services at 0.7 percent. Transport also saw an increase to -7.1 percent from -7.8 percent. Meanwhile, the Information and communication indices retained a zero percent increase, maintaining a 0.3 percent inflation rate. (Table 1)

Table 1 Year-on-Year Inflation Rates by Commodity Group: 
Camiguin (2018 = 100)

The deceleration in the Financial services sector in January 2024 was primarily driven by a reduction in its monthly inflation rate, which decreased by -11.1 percent. Furthermore, the decreased inflation rate in Restaurants and accommodation services was impacted by a -1.6 percent decrease specifically in food and beverage serving services.

In contrast, the increased inflation in the clothing and footwear was primarily attributed to an accelerated monthly inflation rate in footwear which is 5.2 percent.

(SGD)FRANCISCO C. GALAGAR JR. 
Chief Statistical Specialist

Technical Notes

This Special Release presents the results of the Survey of Retail Prices of Commodities and Services for the Generation of Consumer Price Index (CPI) conducted in July 2023.

CPI

The CPI is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households for their day-to-day consumption relative to a base year.

Uses of the CPI

As an indicator, the CPI is most widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of the peso. It is a major statistical series used for economic analysis and as monitoring indicator of government economic policy.

The CPI is also used as a deflator to express value series in real terms, which is, measuring the change in actual volume of transactions by removing the effects of price changes. Another major importance of the CPI is its use as basis to adjust wages in labor management contracts as well as pensions and retirement benefits. The CPI also serves as inputs in wage adjustments through the collective bargaining agreements.

Components of the CPI

a. Base Period This is a reference date or simply a convenient benchmark to which a continuous series of index numbers can be related. Since the CPI measures the average changes in the retail prices of a fixed basket of goods, it is necessary to compare the movement in previous years back to a reference date at which the index is taken as equal to 100.

The present series uses the 2018 as the base year. The year 2018 was chosen as the base year because it is the year when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) was conducted. The FIES is the basis of the CPI weights.

b. Market Basket

Market basket refers to a sample of thousands of varieties of goods purchased for consumption and services availed by the households in the country. It was selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services purchased by the consumers. c. Weighting System The weighting system is a desirable system that considers the relevance of the components of the index. For the CPI, the weighting pattern uses the expenditures on various consumer items purchased by households as a proportion to total expenditures.

d. Geographic Coverage

CPI values are computed at the national, regional, and provincial levels, and for selected cities. A separate CPI for NCR is also computed.

e. Classification Standards

The 2012-based CPI series is the first in the series that used the 1999 United Nations Classification of the Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) in determining the commodity groupings of the items and services included in the market basket. The 2018-based CPI also follows the 2015 Philippine Standard Geographic Classification codes.

Inflation Rate

The inflation rate (IR) is the annual or monthly rate of change of the CPI in percent. It is interpreted in terms of declining purchasing power of money.