Biliran registered an annual headline inflation rate (IR) of 2.7 percent in February 2021. This figure is higher by 2.7 percentage points compared to its IR of 0.0 percent in January 2021 and also higher by 1.5 percentage points than its IR of 1.2 percent in February 2020.

     Moreover, the provincial IR in February 2021 is lower by 0.1 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points than the regional IR (2.8 percent) and national IR (4.7 percent), respectively.

     As shown in Table 1, Biliran’s inflation rate ranked second from the lowest in the Eastern Visayas region.

      In February 2021, the province reported an IR of 2.7 percent. This refers to the All Items or the provincial market basket which represents the goods and services commonly purchased by households in Biliran. 

     Four (4) out of the 11 commodity groups showed increased IR ranging from 0.2 percentage points to 4.2 percentage points. These groups are the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity & Other Fuels; and Transport. Meanwhile, three (3) groups namely the Clothing and Footwear; Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House; and Health showed decreasing IR. The rest of the groups had sustained IRs. 

     Of the 11 commodity groups, the Transport group still set the highest IR at a faster rate of 16.3 percent in February 2021 from 14.2 percent in January 2021. This was followed by the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group at 4.6 percent and the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 4.2 percent. The Recreation and Culture group posted the least with a sustained deflation of 0.7 percent. 

     The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group reported a 4.2 percent IR in February 2021. Most of the items under the group showed increased IR with Fish registering the biggest increment by 18.2 percentage points from -6.7 percent to 11.5 percent.

     Rice, the central commodity of the Filipinos, still registered a deflation of 0.4 percent. This figure posted further decline by 0.1 percentage points from its deflation of 0.3 percent but is higher by 2.3 percentage points from its deflation of 2.7 percent in February 2020.

     The Non-Food category in general posted an increased IR at 1.5 percent in February 2021 after recording a deflation of 0.2 percent in January 2021. Under this category, the Transport group have the highest IR at 16.3 percent followed by the Restaurants & Miscellaneous Goods and Services group with an IR of 2.3 percent.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX

     The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in February 2021 was recorded at 126.1 percent. This implies that the average level of prices of consumer goods and services purchased by households in February 2021 was higher by 26.1 percent compared with the prices in 2012. 

     In addition, the provincial CPI in February 2021 is lower by 2.0 percentage points and 4.6 percentage points compared with the national CPI of 128.1 percent and regional CPI of 130.7 percent, respectively. 

     Majority of the commodity groups recorded increased CPI levels in February 2021 ranging from 0.1 percentage points to 4.2 percentage points. The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group posted the highest increment. 

     By commodity group, the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group still posted the highest CPI with an increased level at 225.1. This was followed by the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group at 140.9 and the Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House at 130.6. In contrast, the Education group recorded the least CPI at a sustained level of 64.9. 

     In general, the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group posted an increase of 4.2 percentage points, from 136.7 to 140.9. This can be attributed to the increase in almost all of its items most especially the Fish. 

     In addition, the Alcoholic Beverages under the aforementioned group recorded the highest CPI at an increased level of 234.5 from 232.5, followed by Tobacco which recorded sustained CPI level at 214.0. The Oils and Fats, on the other hand, still recorded the least CPI at 105.6. 

     On the other hand, the Non-Food category observed minimal increase in its CPI level by 0.9 percentage points from 113.7 to 114.6. Under this category, the Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House set the highest CPI at 130.6 while the Education group remained to have the least CPI at 64.9.

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 0.79.

     The PPP of 0.79 means that our peso, as of February 2021, significantly lost its value and had been eroded by almost 21 centavos over a period. This means that you need P126.58 this 2021 to be able to buy the same amount of goods and services valued at P100 in 2012 which is the base year.

     The province’s PPP is higher than the regional peso and is the highest in the region, together with Leyte (Table 1).

TECHNICAL NOTES 

     The current CPI series is 2012-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 market basket, 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 - The weights for the 2006-based CPI were derived from the expenditure data of the 2006 FIES, a nationwide survey that covered around 44,542 sample households. The weight for each item of expenditure is a proportion of that expenditure item to the total national expenditure. The total (all items) national expenditure weights is equal to 100. 

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. Except for Food, Beverage and Tobacco which is monitored on a weekly basis in NCR, price collection is done twice a month. First collection phase is done during the first five days of the month while the second phase is on the 15th to 17th day of the month. 

COMPUTING THE CPI - The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, a variant of the Laspeyres formula with fixed base year period weights. 

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