Inflation in Samar Province accelerates further to 6.8% in August

Samar Province’s inflation rate accelerated further to 6.8 percent in August 2022 from 6.5 percent recorded in July 2022. (Figure 1) Between August 2021 and 2022, a 0.1-percentage point difference was generated in the province. A provincial year-to-date rate of 5.6 percent was derived from the average of the inflation rates from January to August 2022. (Table 1)

The accelerated growth in the August inflation rate was mainly due to the increases in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages from 5.7 percent in July to 6.3 percent in August; and, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels from 11.7 percent in July to 12.5 percent in August.

Other commodity groups also exhibited growths between July and August including: Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (2.0%); Health (1.7%); Education Services (1.3%); and, Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (1.2%). (Appendix Table 2)

Meanwhile, six out of thirteen commodity groups showed zero or no change in rates, namely: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (12.4%); Clothing and Footwear (0.3%); Information and Communication (0.1%); Recreation, Sport and Culture (0.3%); Restaurants and Accommodation Services (0.7%); and, Financial Services (0.0%). This month, only the Transport group decreased by 3.1 percent. (Figure 2)

Samar generates fifth highest IR in Eastern Visayas

From the six provinces and one highly-urbanized city (HUC) in the region, Southern Leyte recorded the highest inflation rate in August with 9.6 percent and was followed by Northern Samar with 9.3 percent. Samar Province ranked fifth with 6.8 percent while, Tacloban City recorded an inflation of 4.2 percent. (Figure 3)

Purchasing Power of Peso at 0.84 for August in Samar

For four consecutive months, Samar Province’s Purchasing Power of Peso remained at 0.84 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 for 2022. (Figure 4)

August 2022 CPI for All Items of Samar rises to 119.4

Samar’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Items rose to 119.4 from the previously recorded index of 118.7 in July. From August 2022, a difference of 7.6 points was generated from the 111.8 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