Samar’s inflation rate escalates to 7.8% in October 2022

     Samar Province’s inflation rate escalated from 6.6 percent in September to 7.8 percent in October 2022, making it the highest since January 2022. (Figure 1) Between 2021 and 2022 of the same month, a 0.3- percentage point difference was recorded. A provincial year-to-date of 5.9 percent was derived from the average of inflation rates from January to October 2022. (Table 1)

     The uptrend in October’s inflation was due to the increase in Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels from 9.4 percent in September to 15.5 percent in October; Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages from 6.8 percent in September to 8.2 percent; and Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 2.2 percent in September to 3.4 percent in October 2022.

     Increases in inflation rate were also evident between September and October in four commodity groups, namely: Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (3.6%); Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (3.3%); Recreation, Sport and Culture (1.1%); and, Clothing and Footwear (0.5%). On the contrary, only the Transport group showed a decline from 10.7 percent in September to 4.4 percent in October.

     Five out of thirteen commodity groups showed zero or no changes in inflation rates, including: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (12.8%); Health (1.7%); Education Services (1.3%); Information and Communication (0.1%); and, Financial Services (0.0%). (Figure 2)

Samar recorded fourth highest IR in Eastern Visayas

     For October, Samar Province recorded the fourth highest inflation rate among the six provinces and one highly-urbanized city (HUC) in Eastern Visayas. Southern Leyte recorded the highest with 10.6 percent, followed by Northern Samar with 9.3 percent. Tacloban City, the lone HUC in Region VIII, recorded an inflation rate of 4.5 percent. (Figure 3)

Purchasing Power of Peso for Samar continues to weaken with 0.82 in October

     The Purchasing Power of Peso continued to weaken in Samar as it reached 0.82, from a 0.83 PPP in the previous month. This indicates that the price of the same market basket of goods and services valued at Php 100.00 in 2018 are worth Php 82.00 pesos during the month of October this year. (Figure 4)

CPI for All Items increases to 121.7 in Samar

     The province recorded an increasing trend for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In October 2022, CPI rose up to 121.7 from 120.1 in the previous month. (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