The Inflation Rate (IR) of
Northern Samar decrease 
to 6.8 percent in February 2023. This IR is 1.6 percentage points lower compared with the 8.4 IR a month ago, and 1.5 percentage points higher than the recorded 5.3 inflation in the same period last year. The province IR is 0.5 percentage points higher than the Regional IR of 6.3 percent.

Four (4) out of seven (7) provinces, including one (1) HUC, in Eastern Visayas posted lower IR compared with their figures a month ago, while the other two (2) provinces have a higher IR and the remaining province has retained its previous months’ IR.

The Regional IR registered a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from 6.9 percent in January to 6.3 percent in February 2023.

Southern Leyte and Northern Samar have recorded the biggest decrease in inflation rate of 1.6 percentage points from a 7.4 and 8.4 IR in January to 5.8 and 6.8 IR for February 2023, respectively. Followed by the province of Samar with a decrease in inflation rate of 1.2 percentage points from an 8.3 IR in January to a 7.1 IR for the current month. 

Biliran also posted a decrease of 0.7 percentage points with 2.1 IR for February 2023 from a 2.8 IR in January. While Leyte has retained its inflation rate at 5.8 percent. 

Eastern Samar recorded a 0.1 percentage point increase from 10.2 IR in January to 10.3 IR for the month of February 2023. 

For Tacloban City, a 0.6 percentage point decrease was observed for the month of February 2023 with 4.3 IR from a 3.7 IR in January.

BY COMMODITY 

     Out of thirteen (13) commodity groups in the province, nine (9) commodity groups registered lower IRs while two (2) commodity group registered a higher IR during the month in comparison with their rates a month ago. Whereas two (2) commodity groups retained its IR. The IRs resulted to a 1.6 percentage point decrease in the overall IR of the province for the month of February 2023. 

           The decrease in the province inflation was mainly brought about by a lower annual increment in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels division which has a 62.6 percent share to inflation trend, with its current inflation rate of 14.1 from a 19.7 last months’ IR. This can be traced to the decrease in Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 14.9 percentage point decrease from 24.8 to 9.9 IR. Specifically, electricity has a 96.2 percent share to the downtrend.

Meanwhile, a decrease in the following divisions can also be observed: 

     a. Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, 5.3 percent; 
     b. Clothing and Footwear, (0.6) percent; 
     c. Furnishing Household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, 2.6 percent; 
     d. Health, (0.5) percent; 
     e. Transport, (1.2) percent; 
     f. Information & Communication, 3.3 percent; 
     g. Restaurant and Accommodation Services, 7.1 percent; and 
     h. Personal Care, and Miscellaneous Goods and Services, 1.4 percent.

The Restaurant and Accommodation Services commodity group also posted a decrease in percentage points by 9.9, with its current IR of 7.1 from 17.1 of last months’ IR. This comprises the 21.4 percent share to inflation trend. Food and Beverage Serving Services posted a 10.3 percentage point decrease from 17.7 to 7.4 IR.

Transport posted 2.4 percentage point decrease from 1.3 to -1.2 IR for this month, which has an 8.7 percent share to inflation trend. This can be traced to the decrease in Operation of Personal Transport Equipment of 5.2 percentage points, and Purchase of Vehicles with a 0.9 percentage point decrease. Gasoline has the biggest weight with 50.9 percent share in downtrend, followed by diesel and motorcycles with 28.9 and 18.7 percentage share in the downtrend, respectively.

Meanwhile, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages
commodity group posted an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 6.1 IR in January to 6.5 IR for February 2023. This can be traced due to increase in the commodity group of Milk, other dairy products and eggs from an IR of 3.7 to 9.8 IR for this month, which makes up 57.4 percent share to inflation trend. Followed by fish and other seafood with 15.8 percent and rice with 14.5 percent share to inflation trend for the food group.

Recreation, Sport & Culture division also has a slight increase of 1.5 percentage points from 1.5 to 3.0 IR. This is due to an increase of 2.9 percentage point on Newspapers, Books and Stationery, and 1.1 percentage points on Other Recreational Goods. 

Education and Financial Services commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rates.

PURCHASING POWER OF PESO

The Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) in the province remains the same at P0.83 for February 2023. This PPP indicates that P100.00 in 2018 is only worth P83.00 in February 2023. 

The PPP of the same month a year ago was P 0.06 higher at P 0.89 than this months’ PPP of P0.83.

Northern Samar PPP is the same with the Regional PPP at P 0.83, and registered third as one of the weakest PPP among the provinces in Eastern Visayas.

TECHNICAL NOTES 

Rebasing of the CPI is necessary to ensure that this barometer of economic phenomena is truly reflective of current situation. Consumer taste, fashion and technology change over time causing the fixed market basket of goods and services to become outmoded. To capture such changes for a more meaningful price comparison, revision or updating of the fixed market basket, the sample outlets, the weights and the base year had to be done periodically. 

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX – is an indicator of the changes in the average retail price of a fixed market basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year.

USES OF CPI - it 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. 

COMPUTATION OF CPI - the computation of the CPI involves consideration of the following important points: 

     A. BASE PERIOD – refers to the reference period of the index number. It is a period at which the index is set to 100. Current base period is 2018. 
     B. MARKET BASKET - refers to a sample of goods and services used to represent all goods and services bought by a particular group of consumers in a particular area. 
     C. WEIGHTING SYSTEM- uses the expenditures on various consumer items purchased by households as a proportion to total expenditures. 
     D. 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. 
     E. GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE- CPI values are computed at the national, regional, and provincial levels, and for selected cities. 

RETAIL PRICE - refers to the actual price at which retailers sell a commodity on spot or earliest delivery, usually in small quantities for consumption and not for resale. It is confined to transactions on cash basis in the free market and excludes black-market prices and prices of commodities that are on sale as in summer sales, anniversary sales, Christmas sales, etc. 

INFLATION RATE – refers to the rate of change of the CPI expressed in percent. Inflation is interpreted in terms of declining purchasing power of peso. 

PURCHASING POWER PESO – it is a measure of how much the peso in the base period is worth in another period. It gives as indication of the real value in a given period relative to the peso value in the base period.

SGD. JULIAN E. GALLANO
Chief Statistical Specialist