Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Samar significantly decreased to 8.0 percent in April 2023, after the successive double-digit IR since January of this year. This rate is 2.1 percentage points lower compared with the 10.1 percent IR posted in March 2023 and 3.9 percentage points higher compared with the 4.1 percent IR in the same month last year.

The Province’s inflation rate is 3.3 percentage points higher than the 4.7 percent IR recorded in Region VIII and 1.4 percentage points higher than the 6.6 national average IR in April 2023. 

Among the provinces in Region VIII, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 8.0 percent followed by Northern Samar at 6.4 percent and Samar at 5.2 percent.

On the other hand, the province of Southern Leyte registered the lowest IR at 2.6 percent followed by Biliran at 3.3 percent, and Leyte at 4.4 percent.

Month-on-Month

The significant deceleration in the inflation rate, from 10.1 percent in March 2023 to 8.0 percent in April 2023, in the Province was mainly due to the decrease in the inflation rates of the heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages by 3.4 percentage points, from 11.2 percent to 7.8 percent, followed by Restaurants and Accommodation Services by 5.8 percentage points, from 20.6 percent to 14.8 percent, and by Transport by 3.2 percentage points, from a deflation of 1.2 percent to a deflation of 4.4 percent. The downtrend in the inflation rate of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages was mostly driven by the prices of Fish, Fruit-bearing Vegetables, and Other Vegetables.

Similarly, Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; and Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance slowed down to 7.8 percent, 8.5 percent, 10.5 percent, and 10.2 percent, respectively in April 2023. On the contrary, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, and Health exhibited a rise in inflation rates by 0.7 percentage point, and 0.1 percentage point, respectively in April 2023.

Meanwhile, Recreation, Sport and Culture, Information and Communication, Education Services, and Financial Services maintained their previous month’s IR at 8.3 percent, 6.7 percent, 3.1 percent, and 0.0, respectively.

By Commodity Group

For the month of April 2023, the inflation rate of Restaurants and Accommodation Services was the highest among the commodity groups, from 8.6 percent in the same month last year to 14.8 percent this year. However, it decelerated compared with its rate in March 2023 of 20.6 percent. This deceleration was mainly due to the decline in the inflation rates of Restaurants, café and the like and Hotels, motels, inns and similar accommodation services. 

In addition, Furnishings, Household Equipment, Routine Maintenance of the Household; Health; Recreation, Sport and Culture; Information and Communication; Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services; and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages registered significant increases in IR to 10.2 percent, 9.1 percent, 8.3 percent, 6.7 percent, 10.7 percent, 7.8 percent, and 7.8 percent, respectively in April 2023 from 1.2 percent, 0.9 percent, 1.7 percent, 0.4 percent, 5.1 percent, 2.2 percent, and 2.4 percent, respectively in the same month last year. IR of Clothing and Footwear, and Education Services also accelerated to 10.5 percent, and 3.1 percent, respectively in April 2023 from 6.6 percent, and 0.0 percent, respectively in April 2022.

On the other hand, deceleration in inflation rates were noted in Transport at a deflation of 4.4 percent; and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco at 8.5 percent in April 2023 compared to their record in March 2022. 

Financial Services maintained in April 2023 its inflation rate of 0.0 percent in the same month last year.

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

For this month, the Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) in Eastern Samar strengthened to PhP 0.83. This indicates that a peso in 2018 has a value of 83 centavos only in April 2023.

Currently, Eastern Samar has a CPI of 120.7. This means that a typical household in Eastern Samar needs about Php 120.7 in April 2023 in order to buy the same basket of goods and services worth Php 100.00 in 2018.

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) by Province

Across the provinces in Region VIII, Biliran had the strongest PPP of Php 0.86 in April 2023. This was followed by Southern Leyte and Leyte, with a PPP of Php 0.85 and Php 0.84, respectively. On the other hand, Samar recorded the weakest PPP at Php 0.81, followed by Northern Samar and Eastern Samar with a PPP of Php 0.82 and Php 0.83, respectively in April 2023.

The provinces of Biliran, Southern Leyte, and Leyte exceeded the regional and national average PPP of Php 0.83.

TECHNICAL NOTES

Consumer Price Index (CPI) - is an indicator of the change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year. It shows how much on the average, prices of goods and services have increased or decreased from a reference period known as the base year. The current CPI series is 2012- based.

The 2012 FIES expenditure data were used to directly estimate the 2012 CPI weights at the national and regional levels. However, the 2012 FIES estimates for the expenditure data at the provincial level were not directly utilized in estimating the CPI expenditure weights as the data at the provincial/city level may not be reliable with the use of the households' master sample (MS) that was utilized in selecting the 2012 FIES sample households. The MS was drawn using regions as domains in generating estimates in all the household surveys of the PSA starting July 2003. The provincial/city expenditure data were derived using the modelbased method in small area estimation procedures using the regional expenditure data as the control total for all the expenditure data within the specific region. Using these estimates, the weight for each item of expenditure is computed as a proportion of that item of expenditure to the total national expenditure. A raking procedure was done to adjust the weightsofthe provinces so thatthe provincial weights when addedup will equal to theregional weights.

The formula used in computing the CPI is the weighted arithmetic mean of price relatives, a variant of the Laspeyres formula with fixed base year period weights as shown below:

Base Period or Base Year - is the period, usually a year, at which the index number is set to 100. It is the reference point of the index number series. 

Market Basket - is a term used to refer to a sample of goods and services that are commonly purchased and bought by an average Filipino household. 

Inflation Rate (IR) - is defined as the annual rate of change or the year-to-year change in the CPI and is computed as:

Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) - is a measure of the real value the peso in a given period relative to a chosen reference period. It is computed by getting the reciprocal of the CPI and multiplying the result by 100.

SGD. RONNIE A. BAJADO
 Chief Statistical Specialist