Release Date :
Reference Number :
202305-0800-15
Eastern Visayas
The Inflation Rate (IR) in Eastern Visayas decelerated further to 4.7 percent in April 2023, the lowest since January 2022 (Table 2). The regional IR was lower than the 6.6 percent national IR in April 2023. The region’s average IR from January to April 2023 stood at 5.9 percent. In April 2022, the regional IR was higher at 6.1 percent than the rate during the reference period (Table 1).
Among the 13 commodity groups, the sustained downtrend of the regional IR during the month was mainly brought about by the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages which recorded a lower IR of 7.3 percent, from 8.5 percent in March 2023. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel was the second top contributor with an IR at 2.8 percent in April 2023, from 4.1 percent in March 2023. The third primary driver in the slowdown of the regional IR was transport, which recorded a deflation of -1.8 percent from 0.7 percent IR in March 2023.
In addition, lower IRs were noted in the following commodity groups:
a. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 6.2 percent from 8.8 percent;
b. Restaurants and accommodation Services, 6.9 percent from 6.5 percent;
c. Personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 4.1 percent from 4.3 percent; and
d. Clothing and footwear, 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent.
On the other hand, IR for furnishings, households equipment and routine household maintenance increased to 4.5 percent in April 2023, from 4.3 percent in March 2023.
The rest of the commodity groups either retained their previous month’s IRs or had zero percent annual growths (Table 3).
The IR for food index contracted to 7.5 percent in April 2023, from 8.8 percent in March 2023. The IR for food in April 2022 was even lower at 6.6 percent than the April 2023 rate (Table 3).
Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses were the primary driver of the lower food IR at 12.6 percent in April 2023, from 20.3 percent in March 2023 This was followed by fish and other seafood with an IR of 5.7 percent in April 2023, from 8.4 percent in the previous month. Meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals ranked third, recording 3.1 percent IR during the month, from 5.2 percent in the previous month.
Lower IRs were also noted in the following food groups during the month in review:
a. Flour, bread and other bakery products, pasta products, and other cereals, 13.4 percent from 13.9 percent;
b. Sugar, confectionery and desserts, 32.9 percent from 33.8 percent;
c. Oils and fats, 12.4 percent from 13.8 percent;
d. Milk, other dairy products and eggs, 9.4 percent from 9.6 percent; and
e. Corn, 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent.
On the other hand, rice, fruits and nuts, and ready-made food and other food products n.e.c. registered higher IRs during the month in review at 3.8 percent, 14.9 percent, and 8.7 percent, respectively.
Inflation Rate by Region
All regions exhibited lower IRs in April 2023 compared with their respective previous month’s IRs. Among the regions, Eastern Visayas’ IR at 4.7 percent ranked second lowest IR during the month. CAR recorded the lowest IR at 4.3 percent while Western Visayas registered the highest IR at 8.2 percent, followed by MIMAROPA and Davao Region at 7.8 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively (Figure 2 and Table 4).
Inflation Rate by Province
Relative to their IRs in March 2023, all provinces in Eastern Visayas recorded lower IRs in April 2023. Among the provinces, Eastern Samar posted the highest IR at 8.0 percent in April 2023. Northern Samar’s IR came next at 6.4 percent followed by Samar at 5.2 percent; Leyte at 4.4 percent; and Biliran at 3.3 percent. The lowest IR was noted in Southern Leyte at 2.6 percent (Figure 3 and Table 5).
Meanwhile, IR for Tacloban City, the lone Highly Urbanized City (HUC) in the region, decelerated to 2.8 percent in April 2023, from its 4.2 percent IR last month (Figure 3 and Table 5).
TECHNICAL NOTES
The current CPI series is 2018-based. The rebasing to 2018 is the 12th base period and 11th rebasing for CPI. The five steps involved in the rebasing/computing of CPI are as follows: (1) identification of the base year (2) determination of the market basket (3) determination of household consumption patterns/weights (4) monitoring of prices of items in the basket and (5) computation of CPI.
The 2018-based CPI series uses the same method of computation as the 2012-based CPI series, which is chained Laspeyres formula.
BASE YEAR - is a period at which the index number is set to 100. It is the reference point of the index number series. The CPI is rebased from 2012 to 2018.
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (CPI) - is an indicator of the change in the average prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year.
DEFLATION - is the decline in prices for goods and services that happens when the inflation rate dips below zero percent.
INFLATION RATE (IR) - is the annual rate of change or the year-on-year changes in CPI. It indicates how fast or how slow price changes over two time periods (year-on-year). Contrary to common knowledge, low inflation does not necessarily connote that prices of commodities are falling. It means that prices continue to increase but at a slower rate.
MARKET BASKET - refers to a sample of goods and services commonly purchased by the households. The market basket for CPI was updated using the results of the 2021 Survey of Key Informants (SKI). The commodities included in the 2018-based CPI market basket were the modal commodities which were considered as the most commonly purchased/availed commodities by the households. The commodities in the 2018-based CPI market basket were grouped/classified according to the 2020 Philippine Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (PCOICOP).
MONITORING OF PRICES - involves establishing baseline information for the prices of the items in the base year and monitoring the prices of the items on a regular basis. Data collection for the CPI is done by the provincial office twice a month, except for petroleum products which are monitored on a weekly basis, every Friday. First collection phase is done during the first five days of the month while the second phase is on the 15th to 17th day of the month.
PURCHASING POWER OF PESO (PPP) - gives an indication of the real value of peso (how much it is worth) in a given period relative to its value in the base period. It is computed as the reciprocal of CPI multiplied by 100.
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.
WEIGHTS - is 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. The weights for the 2018-based CPI were derived from the expenditure data of the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). The weight for each commodity/group of commodities is the proportion of the expenditure commodity/group of commodities to the total national expenditure. The sum of the weights of the commodity groups at the national level is equal to 100.
SGD. WILMA A. PERANTE
Regional Director
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