Samar inflation rate inches up to 8.3% in January 2023

     Samar Province’s inflation rate slightly increased by 0.1 percentage point from 8.2 percent in December 2022 to 8.3 percent in January 2023. (Figure 1) Between January 2022 and 2023, a gap of 4.2 percentage points was recorded. (Table 1)

     The uptrend was greatly influenced by the increases in Restaurants and Accommodation Services from 4.2 percent in December 2022 to 10.3 percent in January; Transport from 2.8 percent in December 2022 to 4.6 percent in January; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services from 4.6 percent to 6.1 percent following the same reference months.

     Five more commodity groups exhibited uptrend in January. These include: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (13.1%); Health (3.1%); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (5.7%); Clothing and Footwear (1.1%); and Recreation, Sport and Culture (1.4%).

     Zero or no changes in inflation rates were observed in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (8.9%); Education Services (1.3%); and Financial Services (0.0%) commodity groups. In contrast, two out of thirteen commodity groups showed downtrends, namely: Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (12.0%); and Information and Communication (-0.1%). (Figure 2)

Samar ranks third in Eastern Visayas for January IR

     With an inflation rate of 8.3 percent in January, Samar Province ranked third highest among the six provinces in the region. The highest inflation rate was generated by Eastern Samar with 10.2 percent, followed by Northern Samar with 8.4 percent. Region VIII’s lone highly-urbanized city (HUC), Tacloban City, recorded an inflation rate of 3.7 percent. (Figure 3)

Purchasing Power of Peso weakens to 0.81 for Samar

     Samar Province’s Purchasing Power of Peso continued to weaken in January with 0.81, recording the lowest value from January 2022 to 2023 after a continuous decrease from the same month in the previous year. This indicates that a peso in 2018 is worth Php 0.82 (82 centavos) in January 2023. (Figure 4)

CPI for All Items rises to 124.0 in January 2023

     An increase of 2-percentage points was evident in Samar Province’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the 122.0 index in December 2022 to 124.0 in January 2023, indicating that about Php 124.00 is needed by a typical household to buy the same basket of goods and services in January.

     Furthermore, goods and services are more costly in January compared to the same month of the previous year due to a significant gap of 9.5 points generated from the indices between January 2022 and 2023. (Figure 5)

SGD. RIZA N. MORALETA 
Chief Statistical Specialist

TECHNICAL NOTES 

Consumer Price Index (CPI) - An indicator of the changes in the average retail prices of a fixed market basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year. 

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

Base Period/Year - The reference date or base period is the benchmark or reference date or period at which the index is taken as equal to 100. The current base period is 2018. 

Market Basket - A sample of goods and services purchased for consumption availed by the households in the country selected to represent the composite price behavior of all goods and services purchased by consumers. 

Weight - 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. 

Formula - The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, the Laspeyre’s formula with a fixed base year period (2018) weights. 

Geographic Coverage - CPI values are computed at the national, regional, and provincial levels, and for selected cities. 

Inflation Rate - is the rate of change of the CPI expressed in percent. Inflation is interpreted in terms of the declining purchasing power of peso. 

Purchasing Power of Peso - shows how much the peso in the base period is worth in the current period. It is computed as the reciprocal of the CPI for the period under review multiplied by 100.

SGD. RIZA N. MORALETA 
Chief Statistical Specialist