The inflation rate for the province of Eastern Samar significantly decelerated to 8.0 percent in April 2023 after the successive double-digit IR since January 2023. This rate is lower by 2.1 percentage points compared with the 10.1 percent inflation rate posted in March 2023. The Province’s inflation rate, however, is higher by 1.4 percentage points and 3.3 percentage points compared to the country’s and region’s inflation rates of 6.6 and 4.7, respectively. This means that the general price levels of goods and services for the month of April 2023 in the province of Eastern Samar still moved faster compared to the general price levels of goods and services in Region VIII and in the Philippines.

The month-on-month inflation rate for April 2023 stood at -1.3 percent. This is lower by 1.3 percentage points from the 0.0 percent rate recorded in March 2023. This means that the price movement of goods and services in April 2023 was significantly slower compared to the rate in March 2023. The decline on the month-on-month inflation rate was attributed to the decrease in the rate of heavily-weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages.

The Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP) for April 2023 strengthened to Php 0.83 from Php 0.82 in March 2023. This implies that the Php 1.00 in the base year 2018 was valued at only Php 0.83 in April 2023.

For more details, please visit Philippine Statistics Authority, Eastern Samar Provincial Statistical Office, located at J.B. Japzon Building, Circumferential Road, Barangay Balud., Borongan City or call telephone number (055) 560-2763.

Understanding Inflation Rate and Consumer Price Index

What is Inflation Rate?

Indicates how fast or how slow price changes over two time periods. Inflation is a derived estimate of the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of two given periods, e.g. September 2013 vs. September 2012, or September 2013 vs. August 2013. Inflation is interpreted in terms of declining purchasing power of money.

For example, when an inflation rate of 6.4 percent is cited over the media, this usually refers to the year-on-year inflation rate, which measures the changes in CPI for a given month compared to the CPI of the same month of the previous year. NSO releases both the year-on-year (e.g. September 2013 vs. September 2012) and the month–on-month (e.g. September 2013 vs. August 2012) inflation rates, the latter being a comparison of the CPI for the month with that of the immediately preceding month.

What does low inflation mean?

Contrary to common knowledge, low inflation does not connote that prices of commodities are falling. It means that prices continue to increase but at a slow rate.

What is Consumer Price Index (CPI)?

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the changes in the price level of goods and services that most people buy for their day-to-day consumption. It is the index which measure price changes relative to a base year.

CPI is most widely used in the calculation of the inflation rate and purchasing power of the peso.

The base year for the current CPI series is year 2018. 

What is the Purchasing Power of the Peso (PPP)?

The Purchasing power of the peso (PPP) gives an indication of how much the Philippine peso is worth in a given period relative to its value in a base period. 

For example, when reported that the purchasing power of the peso for the month of January 2023 is 0.83, it is interpreted as: The value of the same market basket of goods and services that can be bought at only P0.83 in 2018 is worth P100.00 in April 2023. In other words, P1.00 in January is worth P0.68 in January 2014. 

What is Market Basket? 

This refers to goods and services that are commonly purchased and bought by an average Filipino household in a particular area. However, the market basket cannot and does not contain all the consumer goods and services in the economy but consists only of a sample commodities which are used to represent all consumer goods and services in a given area. Provinces and selected cities had their own market baskets. For example, the market basket for Batanes has 285 items; for Metro Manila, 1,500; and for Eastern Samar has an estimate of 1,100 items. For example of items in Eastern Samar present in the market basket are: tulya, agitway, anchor shell, which may or may not be present in other cities and provinces, or their might be items in other cities/provinces which might be also not included in Eastern Samar because they are not available in our place.

SGD. RONNIE A. BAJADO
Chief Statistical Specialist