December 2008
Month-on-Month
The month-on-month growth rate of the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to drop at -0.7 percent in December from -1.4 percent in November as prices of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials further declined by -16.7 percent from -11.1 percent. Moreover, prices of chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats and manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials also went down by -0.1 percent and -0.2 percent, respectively from their corresponding last month's rates of 0.5 percent and -1.4 percent. Prices of beverages and tobacco posted a zero growth rate during the month. The rest of the commodity groups however recorded higher positive monthly growth rates.
Price rollbacks in gasoline, kerosene and LPG along with the price decreases in steel bars contributed to the downtrend.
Year-on-Year
On an annual basis, the growth rate of the GRPI in NCR moved at a slower pace of 3.9 percent in December from 6.5 percent in November. Except for machinery and transport equipment index whose annual price adjustment was higher at 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent, all the other commodity groups either posted negative or slower annual growth rates. Annual price movement in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials index fell by -16.4 percent in December from 3.5 percent in November. In addition, the annual growth rate of the food index decelerated to 6.4 percent from 7.7 percent; beverages and tobacco, 6.3 percent from 6.9 percent; crude materials, inedible except fuels, 7.6 percent from 8.2 percent; chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats, 3.6 percent from 3.7 percent; manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials, 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent; and miscellaneous manufactured articles, 4.1 percent from 5.4 percent.
Source: National Statistics Office
Manila, PhilippinesPage last revised: Febraury 12, 2009
