Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Samar slightly decreased to 10.1 percent in March 2023, after the successive acceleration since May 2022. This rate is 0.2 percentage point lower compared with the 10.3 percent IR posted in February 2023 and 5.8 percentage points higher compared with the 4.3 percent IR in the same month last year.

The Province’s inflation rate is 4.2 percentage points higher than the 5.9 percent IR recorded in Region VIII and 2.5 percentage points higher than the 7.6 national average IR in March 2023.

Among the provinces in Region VIII, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 10.1 percent followed by Samar at 7.8 percent and Northern Samar at 7.3 percent.

On the other hand, the province of Biliran registered the lowest IR at 3.5 percent followed by Southern Leyte at 3.7 percent, and Leyte at 4.9 percent.

Month-on-Month

The deceleration in the inflation rate, from 10.3 percent in February 2023 to 10.1 percent in March 2023, in the Province was mainly due to the decrease in the inflation rates of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages by 0.5 percentage point, from 11.7 percent to 11.2 percent, followed by Transport by 3.3 percentage points, from 2.1 percent to a deflation of 1.2 percent, and Restaurants and Accommodation Services by 4.0 percentage points, from 24.6 percent to 20.6 percent. The downtrend in the inflation rate of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages was mostly driven by the prices of Fish, live, fresh, chilled or frozen, Fruit-bearing Vegetables, fresh or chilled, and Meat, fresh, chilled, or frozen. 

Similarly, Clothing and Footwear slowed down to 10.9 percent in March 2023. On the contrary, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Health; Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance; Recreation, Sport and Culture; and Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services exhibited a rise in inflation rates by 2.5 percentage points, 2.4 percentage points, 0.3 percentage point, 0.2 percentage point, 0.1 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point, respectively in March 2023. 

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

By Commodity Group

For the month of March 2023, the inflation rate of Restaurants and Accommodation Services was the highest among the commodity groups, from 3.5 percent in the same month last year to 20.6 percent this year. However, it decelerated compared to its record in February 2023 of 24.6 percent. This deceleration was mainly due to the decline in the inflation rate of Restaurants, café and the like.

 In addition, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Furnishings, Household Equipment, Routine Maintenance of the Household; Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods and Services; Health; Recreation, Sport and Culture; and Information and Communication registered significant increases in IR to 11.2 percent, 10.5 percent, 9.4 percent, 9.0 percent, 8.3 percent, and 6.7 percent, respectively in March 2023 from 1.6 percent, 1.1 percent, 1.4 percent, 2.0 percent, 1.9 percent, and 0.7 percent, respectively in the same month last year. IR of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco; Clothing and Footwear; and Education Services also accelerated to 11.1 percent, 10.9 percent, and 3.1 percent, respectively in March 2023 from 5.7 percent, 6.6 percent, and 0.0 percent, respectively in March 2022. On the other hand, deceleration in inflation rates were noted in Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels at 10.0 percent; Transport at a deflation of 1.2 percent; and Financial Services at 0.0 percent in March 2023 compared to their record in March 2022.

Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP)

For this month, Eastern Samar maintained its Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) of PhP 0.82. This indicates that a peso in 2018 has a value of 82 centavos only in March 2023.

Currently, Eastern Samar has a CPI of 122.3. This means that a typical household in Eastern Samar needs about Php 122.3 in March 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 March 2023. This was followed by Southern Leyte and Leyte, both with a PPP of Php 0.84. On the other hand, Samar recorded the weakest PPP at Php 0.80, followed by Eastern Samar and Northern Samar, both with a PPP of Php 0.82 in March 2023.

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