JANUARY 2017

Year-on-Year and Month-on-Month Growth Rates
of General Retail Price Index

Year-on-Year

• The annual increment of the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) was higher at 4.4 percent in January 2017. It picked up by 4.3 percent in December 2016 and 1.2 percent during the same month in 2016. The uptrend was mainly due to the 14.7 percent annual increase posted in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials index. In addition, higher annual gains were also observed in the indices of beverages and tobacco at 3.3 percent; crude materials, inedible except fuels, 1.4 percent; and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats, 1.1 percent. Moreover, the index for manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials likewise went up by 1.7 percent; machinery and transport equipment, 0.6 percent; and miscellaneous manufactured articles, 0.7 percent. On the contrary, a slower annual increase was noted in the heavily-weighted food index at 8.5 percent (Table 2).

  

By Commodity Group, Month-on-Month (Table 3)

Compared to a month ago level, the increment of GRPI in NCR decelerated to 0.1 percent in January 2017. Last month, it was pegged at 0.5 percent.

• The food index went down by 0.1 percent during the month. This was brought about by lower prices of rice, whole corn, chicken, canned meat, shrimps and prawns, fresh fruits, vegetables and raw peanuts.

• The index for manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials dropped by 0.1 percent. Price reduction in selected construction materials were observed during the month.

• Price increments in petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene and LPG pushed up the index for mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials by 3.7 percent.

• A 0.1 percent growth in chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index was due to higher prices in medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations such as vitamins, analgesic and soap and other washing and cleaning compounds like laundry soap.

• The growth in beverages and tobacco index was pegged at 0.2 percent. This was brought about by higher prices of selected liquors and wines and cigarettes.

• No movement was seen in the indices of crude materials, inedible except fuel, machinery and transport equipment, and miscellaneous manufactured articles.