Month-on-Month Growth Rates

At the national level, the month-on-month change in the seasonally adjusted CPI for all items in June was registered at its previous month’s rate of 0.3 percent; alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 0.8 percent; and clothing and footwear, 0.2 percent. From an increase of 0.1 percent, higher monthly growths were noted in the indices of the following commodity groups: recreation and culture (0.9%); health (0.3%); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services (0.2%). A 0.8 percent uptick was likewise posted in education index from 0.3 percent last month. However, movement in the seasonally adjusted CPI for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels eased to 0.4 percent from 0.5 percent.

Seasonal factors such as tuition fee hikes and higher demand of selected items due to the start of the school year pushed up the indices for all the commodity groups during the period.

Compared to last month, the seasonally adjusted CPI in NCR for education went up 0.9 percent from 0.4 percent and transport, 0.5 percent from 0.4 percent. On the other hand, the furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index declined by 0.1 percent from zero growth. Moreover, movement in the alcoholic beverages and tobacco index slowed to 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent while the non-food index retained its last month’s rate of 0.2 percent.

The monthly gains in the indices of alcoholic beverages, non-food, and education were influenced by the increase in tuition fees and bigger demand of some items during the opening of classes in NCR. The indices for furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house and transport were however pushed down by these seasonal factors.

In AONCR, except for the growth in the clothing and footwear index which remained at its last month’s rate of 0.2 percent, monthly changes in the seasonally adjusted CPI for all the commodity groups moved up during the month. The recreation and culture index advanced 1.1 percent from 0.2 percent; alcoholic beverages and tobacco index, 0.9 percent from 0.8 percent; education index, 0.6 percent from 0.4 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index, 0.5 percent from 0.2 percent; health index, 0.4 percent from 0.1 percent; and the indices of furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services, 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent.

The indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco; clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; health; recreation and culture, education and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services were pushed up by the seasonal factors such as the higher tuition fees and bigger demand of some goods during the opening of classes.