The Province of Biliran recorded an inflation rate (IR) of 2.8 percent in January 2023. This figure is lower by 3.0 percentage points compared to its IR of 5.8 percent in the previous month. It is also lower by 1.8 percentage points than its IR of 4.6 percent in January 2022.

Moreover, the provincial IR in January 2023 is lower by 5.9 percentage points and 4.1 percentage points compared to the national IR of 8.7 percent and the regional IR of 6.9 percent, respectively.

PRICE SITUATION: YEAR-ON-YEAR
 

As shown in Table 1, Biliran recorded the lowest inflation rate among the six (6) provinces in the Eastern Visayas region. 

In January 2023, the province reported an IR of 2.8 percent. This refers to All Items or the provincial market basket which represents the goods and services commonly purchased by the households in Biliran. 

Seven (7) out of 13 commodity groups of Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported sustained IRs in January 2023. These groups are the Clothing and Footwear; Information and Communication; Recreation, Sport and Culture; Education Services; Restaurants and Accommodation Services; Financial Services; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services. 

Three (3) groups namely the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; and Transport posted lower IRs in January 2023. Meanwhile, the remaining groups of the Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity, and Other Fuels; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House; and Health observed higher IRs in January 2023 as compared to the previous month. 

The Transport group set the highest IR with a slower rate of 11.7 percent. This was followed by the Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity and Other Fuels at 9.0 percent and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 5.2 percent. The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages registered the least with a deflation of 0.7 percent while some commodity groups have zero annual growth rates. 

Moreover, the food index reported a deflation of 0.9 percent in January 2023 which is lower by 6.7 percentage points from its IR of 5.8 percent in December 2022. This resulted from the decline in the items under the index particularly of fish and other seafoods; and fruits and nuts with a deflation of 12.7 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. 

Rice, the central commodity of the Filipinos, recorded a lower IR of 1.7 percent in January 2023. It is, however, higher by 8.1 percentage points from its recorded deflation of 6.4 percent in January 2022. 

The Non-Food category in general observed a minimal decrease in its IR by 0.1 percentage points from 5.9 percent in December 2022 to 5.8 percent in January 2023. 

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX 

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

In addition, the provincial CPI in January 2023 is lower by 4.4 percentage points than the regional CPI of 120.0 percent and also lower by 5.8 percentage points than the national CPI of 121.4 percent.

Six (6) of the 13 commodity groups observed higher CPI levels in January 2023. These groups are the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity and Other Fuels; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of the House; and Health. 

There were also six (6) groups who recorded sustained CPI levels in January 2023 namely the Information and Communication; Recreation, Sport and Culture; Education Services; Restaurants and Accommodation Services; Financial Services; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services. Meanwhile, only the Transport group observed a decrease in its CPI level by 0.3 percentage points from 131.0 percent to 130.7 percent. 

By commodity group, Financial Services still posted the highest CPI with a sustained level of 162.4 percent. This was followed by the Transport group and the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group with a CPI level of 130.7 percent and 116.4 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 increased by 1.9 percentage points from 114.4 percent in December 2022 to 116.3 percent in January 2023. This can be attributed to the increases in the CPI levels of majority of its items ranging from 0.1 percentage points to 17.2 percentage points. The sugar, confectionery and desserts item recorded the highest CPI at 139.4 percent, followed by the meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals at 138.4 percent, and the vegetables, tubers, cooking bananas and pulses at 136.8 percent. Rice, on the other hand, observed a sustained CPI at 93.1 percent. 

The Non-Food category reported a CPI level of 114.8 percent in January 2023 which is 0.1 percentage points higher than the CPI of 114.7 percent in December 2022. Most commodity groups under this category 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 January 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 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 - 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