By Zaldy Comanda
BAGUIO CITY – The inflation rate in the Cordillera region dropped to 2.5 percent in March this year from 2.9 percent in the same period last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.
Philippine Statistics Authority (MANILA BULLETIN)
The PSA defines inflation as the average increase in the prices of goods and services in a certain area.
Most of the provinces in region had high inflation rates in March, except for Benguet and Mountain Province.
Ifugao posted the highest inflation rate at 6.8 percent, followed by Apayao at 6.5 percent and Kalinga at 5.9 percent.
Apayao posted the fastest price increases with 4.4 percentage points, followed by Ifugao with 4 percentage points and Kalinga with 2.6 percentage points.
By commodity group year-on-year, the PSA stated that inflation of the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index in the region remains at 1.4 from February to March 2019, while alcoholic beverages and tobacco had the highest inflation in March this year among other commodities in the region with 16.5, followed by health with 8.4 percent.
On the other hand, PSA pointed out that education incurred a negative inflation rate of 1.3 percent.
The consumer price index (CPI) is a 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 households.