The Province of Biliran recorded an inflation rate (IR) of 2.2 percent in May 2023. This figure is lower by 1.1 percentage points compared to its IR of 3.3 percent in the previous month. It is also lower by 2.8 percentage points than its IR of 5.0 percent in May 2022.

     Moreover, the provincial IR in May 2023 is lower by 3.9 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points compared to the national IR of 6.1 percent and the regional IR of 4.2 percent, respectively.

     In May 2023, the province reported an IR of 2.2 percent. This refers to All Items or the provincial market basket which represents the goods and services commonly purchased by the households in Biliran.

     Eight (8) out of 13 commodity groups of Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported lower IRs in May 2023. These groups are the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity and Other Fuels; Health; Transport; Information and Communication; and Recreation, Sport and Culture.

     Five (5) groups namely the Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House; Education Services; Restaurants and Accommodation Services; Financial Services; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services.

     The Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group set the highest IR with a slower rate of 5.2 percent. This was followed by the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group and the Clothing and Footwear group also with lower IRs of 4.3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. The Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity and Other Fuels group registered the least with a deflation of 1.6 percent while some commodity groups have zero annual growth rates.

     Moreover, the food index reported an IR of 4.4 percent in May 2023 which declined by 1.2 percentage points from the IR of 5.6 percent in April 2023. This resulted from the decrease in the food items most especially the fish and other seafood.

     Rice, the central commodity of the Filipinos, recorded a lower IR of 2.1 percent in May 2023 from an IR of 2.9 percent in April 2023.

     The Non-Food category in general observed a decline in its IR by 0.9 percentage points from 1.2 percent in April 2023 to 0.3 percent in May 2023.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX

     The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May 2023 was recorded at 115.6 percent. This implies that the average level of prices of consumer goods and services purchased by households in May 2023 was higher by 15.6 percent compared with the prices in 2018.

     In addition, the provincial CPI in May 2023 is lower by 4.0 percentage points than the regional CPI of 119.6 percent and also lower by 5.3 percentage points than the national CPI of 120.9 percent.

     Ten (10) of the 13 commodity groups observed sustained CPI levels in May 2023. These groups are the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House; Health; Information and Communication; Recreation, Sport and Culture; Education Services; Restaurants and Accommodation Services; Financial Services; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services.

     There were three (3) groups namely the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity and Other Fuels; and Transport which observed a decline in its CPI level at 117.2 percent, 113.7 percent, and 127.6 percent, respectively.

     By commodity group, the Financial Services still posted the highest CPI with a sustained level of 162.4 percent. This was followed by the Transport group and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group with CPI levels of 127.6 percent and 117.4 percent, respectively. In contrast, the Information and Communication group recorded the least CPI with a sustained level of 103.4 percent.

     In general, the CPI of the food index decreased by 1.0 percentage points from 118.0 percent in April 2023 to 117.0 percent in May 2023. This can be attributed to the decline in the CPI levels of the fish and other seafood; fruits and nuts; vegetables, tubers cooking bananas and pulses; sugar, confectionery and desserts; and readymade food and other food products n.e.c. The sugar, confectionery and desserts item recorded the highest CPI at 142.8 percent, followed by the meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals item at 142.5 percent. Rice, on the other hand, observed a minimal increase in its CPI level at by 94.5 percent from 94.1 percent.

     The Non-Food category reported a minimal decline of 0.8 percentage points in its CPI level at 114.2 percent. Most commodity groups under this category also had sustained CPI levels.

PURCHASING POWER OF PESO

     The price changes reflected in the CPI caused the value of the national currency in Biliran to have a value of Php 0.87. This PPP implies that the goods and services worth Php 1.00 in 2018 is now worth Php 0.87 in May 2023 or you will need Php 115 to buy the same goods and services worth Php 100 in 2018.

TECHNICAL NOTES

     The current CPI series is 2018-based. The five steps involved in the rebasing/computing of the CPI are as follows: (1) identification of the base year (2) determination of the market basket (3) determination of household consumption patterns (4) monitoring of prices of items in the basket and (5) computation of the CPI.

REBASING THE CPI - is necessary to ensure that this barometer of economic phenomena is truly reflective of current situation. Consumer taste, fashion and technology change over time causing the fixed market basket of goods and services to become outmoded. To capture such changes for a more meaningful price comparison, revision or updating of the fixed marketbasket, the sample outlets, the weights and the base year had to be done periodically. 

MARKET BASKET - refers to a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services bought by a particular group of consumers in a particular area. 

WEIGHTS - is a value attached to a commodity or group of commodities to indicate the relative importance of that commodity or group of commodities in the market basket. The weights for the 2018-based CPI were derived from the expenditure data of the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey. 

MONITORING OF PRICES - is to establish baseline information for prices of the items in the base year and monitoring of the prices of the items on a regular basis. 

COMPUTING THE CPI - The formula uses straightforward computation of monthly average prices of commodities; chain method for elementary items indexes; geometric mean method at the lowest level (subclass level) of aggregation of price indexes; and weighted arithmetic mean at the higher levels of aggregation of price indexes. 

RETAIL PRICE - refers to the actual price at which retailers sell a commodity on spot or earliest delivery, usually in small quantities for consumption and not for resale. It is confined to transactions on cash basis in the free market and excludes black-market prices and prices of commodities that are on sale as in summer sales, anniversary sales, Christmas sales, etc.

SGD.RENAVIL V. CUEVA 
Chief Statistical Specialist