Food, Beverages and Tobacco (FBT) and Non-FBT Items
(NCR and AONCR - January 2010)

1. CPI of Food, Beverages and Tobacco (FBT): National Capital Region (NCR) and Areas Outside the National Capital Region (AONCR)
   

   The seasonally adjusted CPI of FBT items in NCR declined to 155.4 in January from 156.3 in December while that in AONCR picked up to 168.8 from 168.6.

   Seasonal factors in January such as the cold weather condition resulted to lower production of eggs, thus raising their prices in NCR and AONCR. Prices of fish were also up in the two areas due to difficulty in catching fish that usually settle deep in the waters during the cold months. In addition, bigger demand of fish was also observed as consumers shifted from meat to fish after the holiday season. All these factors raised prices of FBT items in NCR. However, these did not pull up prices of FBT items in AONCR relative to the expected trend.

   The month-on-month growth of the seasonally adjusted CPI for FBT items in NCR dropped by -0.6 percent in January from 0.1 percent in December while in AONCR, it further slowed down to 0.1 percent from 0.7 percent.

2. CPI of Non-FBT items: National Capital Region (NCR) and Areas Outside the National Capital Region (AONCR)

The seasonally adjusted CPI of non-FBT items in NCR and AONCR went up correspondingly to 164.2 and 162.8 in January from their respective December levels of 163.1 and 161.9.

Seasonal factors such as the practice of implementing business changes at the beginning of the year like increasing rental rates did not push up prices of non-FBT items in NCR and AONCR relative to the expected trend.

Price gains of seasonally adjusted CPI for non-FBT items in NCR remained at 0.7 percent in January while that for AONCR was slower at 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent.

For technical notes and other related information,
please visit:
http://www.census.gov.ph
or contact the Economic Indicators and Indices Division, NSO
at telephone number 716-3935

Page last updated: February 5, 2010