Inflation rate in Samar climbs to 6.5 percent in July 2022

     From the 6.3 percent in June 2022, Samar’s inflation rate climbed to 6.5 percent in July. (Figure 1) A provincial year-to-date rate of 5.4 percent was derived from the average of the inflation rates from January to July 2022. (Table 1)

     Inflation for July was heavily affected by the increases in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages from 5.4 percent in June to 5.7 percent in July; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels from 11.1 percent in June to 11.7 percent in July; and, Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance from 0.7 percent in June to 1.0 percent July.

     Other commodity groups also exhibited growths between June and July including: Restaurants and Accommodation Services (0.7%) and Clothing and Footwear (0.3%). (Annex Table 2)

     Steady increases in inflation rates were observed in three commodity groups from June to July, namely: Information and Communication with 0.1 percent; and, Education and Financial Services with both having 0 or no rate change for the months referred to. (Figure 2) 

     On the other hand, five out of thirteen commodity groups posted decreases in inflation rates such as Transport (15.3%); Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (12.4%); Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (1.7%); Health (0.8%); and, Recreation, Sport and Culture (0.3%).

Samar ranks sixth for July inflation rates in Eastern Visayas

     Northern Samar recorded the highest inflation rate in July at 10.1 percent followed by Southern Leyte with 9.8 percent. Samar Province ranked sixth with 6.5 percent while, Tacloban City recorded an inflation of 5.2 percent. (Figure 3)

July Purchasing Power of Peso for Samar remains at 0.84

     Samar Province’s Purchasing Power of Peso remained at 0.84 for three consecutive months from May to July 2022 indicating that the price of the same market basket of goods and services valued at Php 100.00 in 2018 are worth Php 84.00 in the same reference month. (Figure 4)

July 2022 CPI for All Items of Samar increments to 118.7

     Samar’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Items incremented by 0.1 percentage point from the 118.6 in June to 118.7 in July. From the July 2022 CPI, a difference of 7.2 points was generated from the 111.5 index recorded in the same month of the previous year. (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