INFLATION in the Cordillera Administrative Region slowed down in February this year to 2.5 percent compared to 2.6 percent in February 2018.
In a recent report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) CAR regional office, the consumer price index (CPI) in February 2019 was 117.2 compared to the 114.3 in February 2018 using 2012 as base year.
CPI is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a basket of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household. Inflation is the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI.
Among the provinces in the Cordillera, the PSA reported that Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate at 7.1 percent, followed by Kalinga at 6.5 percent, and Apayao at 6.3 percent.
All provinces posted higher inflation rates compared to February 2018, except Benguet and Mt. Province.
Ifugao posted the highest acceleration with an increase of 5.2 percentage points, followed by Apayao with 4.9 percentage points, and Kalinga with 4.4 percentage points.
The PSA added that alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest inflation at 17 percent, among other commodity baskets in the region, followed by health with 9.1 percent.
In terms of CPI, alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest CPI in the region with 214.2.
The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI for this commodity basket with 329.7, followed by Abra and Kalinga with 264.2, and 244.4, respectively.
Meanwhile, PSA-CAR said the value of peso in the region in all provinces generally weakened in February 2019 compared to the same month of the previous year.
The purchasing power of peso (PPP) was 85 centavos in February 2019, weaker than the 87 centavos in February 2018.
The agency also said changing the base year from the current 2012 is necessary to ensure the barometer of economic phenomena is truly reflective of the current situation and consumer taste, fashion and technology change over time causing the fixed market basket of goods and services to become outmoded.