Biliran registered an annual headline inflation rate (IR) of 4.5 percent in July 2021. This figure is higher by 0.1 percentage points compared to its IR of 4.4 percent in June 2021 and 3.7 percentage points more than its IR of 0.8 percent in July 2020.

      Moreover, the provincial IR in July 2021 is higher by 1.3 percentage points than the regional IR (3.2 percent) and by 0.5 percentage points than the national IR (4.0 percent).

        As shown in Table 1, Biliran recorded the third highest inflation rate in Eastern Visayas region.

             In July 2021, the province reported an IR of 4.5 percent. This refers to the All Items or the provincial market basket which represents the goods and services commonly purchased by the households in Biliran. 

            Majority of the commodity groups of CPI showed decreased IR in July 2021. These groups are the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity & Other Fuels; Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House; Health; Transport; Communication; Recreation and Culture; and Restaurants & Miscellaneous Goods and Services. Two (2) groups observed increased IR which includes the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and the Clothing and Footwear. Only the Education group had a sustained IR of 0.8 percent in July 2021. 

            Of the 11 commodity groups, the Transport group still set the highest IR at a slower rate of 16.6 percent in July 2021 from 18.1 percent in June 2021. This was followed by the Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity & Other Fuels group at 5.2 percent and the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group at 4.1 percent. The Recreation and Culture group posted the least with a further deflation of 1.1 percent. 

            The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group reported an increase of 1.6 percentage points from 2.0 percent in June 2021 to 3.6 percent in July 2021. This resulted from the accelerated IR in most of the items under the group ranging from 0.2 percentage points to 9.1 percentage points. Rice, the central commodity of the Filipinos, further recorded a deflation of 2.8 percentage in July 2021. This is lower by 0.2 percentage points from the deflation of 2.6 percent in June 2021. It is also lower by 1.8 percentage points compared to its deflation of 1.0 percent in July 2020. The Non-Food category in general posted a lower IR by 1.0 percentage points from 6.0 percent in June 2021 to 5.0 percent in July 2021. This resulted from the decrease in some of the commodity groups under it especially the Transport group and the Restaurants & Miscellaneous Goods and Services. Furthermore, the 2 nd Floor EMK Building, Vicentillo Extension, 6560 Naval, Biliran Telephone: (053) 500-9723/500-9861 Email address: psabiliran@gmail.com Transport group have the highest IR at 16.6 percent followed by the Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity & Other Fuels group with an IR of 5.2 percent.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX 

         The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in July 2021 was recorded at 125.5 percent. This implies that the average level of prices of consumer goods and services purchased by households in July 2021 was higher by 25.5 percent compared with the prices in 2012. 

             In addition, the provincial CPI in July 2021 is lower by 5.3 percentage points and 3.0 percentage points than the regional CPI of 130.8 and national CPI of 128.5, respectively. 

             Most of the commodity groups recorded increased CPI levels in July 2021. These groups are the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House; Health; and Transport. Two (2) groups which include the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and the Housing, Water, Gas, Electricity & Other Fuels showed lower CPI levels at 132.1 and 120.0, respectively. The rest of the groups reported sustained CPI levels. 

             By commodity group, the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco group still posted the highest CPI with an increased level at 227.0. This was followed by the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group at 132.1 and the Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House at 131.5. In contrast, the Education group recorded the least CPI at a sustained level of 64.9. 

             In general, the CPI of the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group slightly declined by 0.4 percentage points, from 132.5 to 132.1. This can be attributed to the decrease in the Fish and Meat items. In addition, the Alcoholic Beverages under the aforementioned group recorded the highest CPI at an increased level of 238.1, followed by Tobacco which recorded a sustained CPI level of 214.0. The Oils and Fats, on the other hand, still recorded the least CPI at 106.2. 

             On the other hand, the Non-Food category reported decreased CPI level at 119.2. Under this category, the Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance of the House set the highest CPI at 131.5 while the Education group remained to have the least CPI at 64.9. In addition, most groups under this category observed either increased or 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 0.80. 

             The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of 0.80 means that our peso, as of July 2021, significantly lost its value and had been eroded by almost 20 centavos over a period. This means that you need P125 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 rehion (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 - 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 2012-based CPI were derived from the expenditure data of the 2012 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. 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 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