PRICES of alcoholic beverages and tobacco continue to soar in the Cordillera Administrative Region, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority's (PSA) March 2019 Consumer Price Index (CPI) situationer.
CPI is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipino household.
Cordillera CPI in March 2019 was 117.4, which was higher by 2.9 index points from the 114.5 of March 2018 using 2012 as base year.
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest CPI in the region, with 215.0. The province of Apayao incurred the highest CPI on this commodity with 335.1, followed by Abra with 269.0 and Kalinga with 244.4.
Education, clothing and footwear registered the second highest CPI among the commodity groups in the region for March 2019 with 121.8 index points.
Among the provinces, Kalinga posted the highest index on education with 121.8 index points, followed by Benguet and Mountain Province with 121.6 and 120.5 index points, respectively. Apayao had the lowest registered CPI on education with 60.9 index points.
Ifugao recorded the highest CPI on clothing and footwear with 125.0 index points, followed by Kalinga and Benguet with 124.4 and 122.4 index points, respectively. Apayao registered the lowest CPI on clothing and footwear with 115.7 index points.
Health ranked third with 120.1 index points. Benguet and Ifugao recorded the highest CPI on health both with 125.7 index points, followed by Kalinga with 124.8 index points.
Communication continued to have the lowest CPI among the commodity groups in the region with 101.4 index points. The province of Apayao incurred the highest index on communication with 105.5 index points, while Mountain Province had the lowest with 100.1 index points.
PSA noted alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest increase by 30.5 points. Increases were also incurred in health (9.3 points), recreation and culture (4.6 points), and clothing and footwear (4.4 points). (SunStar Baguio)