MARCH AND FEBRUARY 2014
| Year-on-Year Inflation Rates, All Items | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| March | February | Year-to-date | |
| Philippines | |||
| Headline | 3.9 | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Core | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| NCR | |||
| Headline | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| AONCR | |||
| Headline | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
The country’s annual headline inflation further decelerated to 3.9 percent in March from 4.1 percent in February. The downtrend was due to slower annual hikes posted in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; recreation and culture; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services. Inflation during the same month in 2013 was 3.2 percent.
Excluding selected food and energy items, core inflation continued to move at a slower pace of 2.8 percent in March from 3.0 percent in February.
In the National Capital Region (NCR), annual inflation continued to inch up at 2.9 percent in March from 2.8 percent in February. The indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages; clothing and footwear; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house; health; and transport posted higher annual increments.
Following the same trend at the national level, annual inflation In Areas Outside NCR (AONCR) further dipped to 4.2 percent in March from 4.5 percent in February. This can be attributed to the slowdowns in the annual increases of all the commodity groups except in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages; communication; and education.
Year-on-Year Inflation Rates in the Philippines, All Items
January 2009 - March 2014
(2006=100)Month
Year
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 January 7.1
3.9
4.0
4.0
3.1 4.2 February 7.2
3.9
4.7 2.7 3.4 4.1 March 6.7
3.9
4.9 2.6 3.2 3.9 April 5.6
4.0 4.7 3.0 2.6 May 4.3
3.9 4.9 3.0 2.6 June 3.2
3.6 5.2 2.9 2.7 July 2.2
3.7 4.9 3.2 2.5 August 1.7
4.1 4.6 3.8 2.1 September 2.3
3.8 4.7 3.7 2.7 October 2.9
3.3 5.2 3.2 2.9 November 3.5
3.7 4.7 2.8 3.3 December 4.4
3.6 4.2 3.0 4.1 Average 4.2
3.8 4.6 3.2 3.0
| Month-on-Month Inflation Rates, All Items (2006=100) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mar | Feb | |
| Philippines | - 0.1 | 0.1 |
| NCR | - 0.1 | 0.0 |
| AONCR | - 0.1 | 0.1 |
The country’s consumer prices generally went down by 0.1 percent in March from a growth of 0.1 percent last month. It primarily resulted from the continued downward price adjustment in LPG and lower charges in electricity rates.
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
(2006=100)MARCH 2014
By Region, Year-on-Year
Year-on year inflation in NCR picked up to 2.9 percent in March from 2.8 percent in February.
Annual inflation in AONCR further slowed down to 4.2 percent in March from 4.5 percent in February as 10 regions registered lower annual growths. The lowest annual rate of 2.7 percent was posted in CAR while the highest was still recorded in Eastern Visayas at 7.5 percent.
By Commodity Group, Year-on-Year
The year-on-year mark- up in alcoholic beverages and tobacco index at the national level decelerated to 4.9 percent in March from 7.1 percent in February; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index, 2.7 percent from 3.6 percent; recreation and culture index, 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services index, 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent. The other commodity groups had higher annual add-ons or retained their last month’s rate.
The country’s food alone index increased by 6.0 percent in March from 5.9 percent in February.
All the food groups had higher annual rates except in the fish and vegetable indices. The annual gain of the fish index remained at 3.9 percent while that for the vegetable index eased to 8.7 percent from 12.0 percent.
In NCR, a higher annual growth was posted in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 5.4 percent in March from 4.2 percent in February; clothing and footwear index, 3.9 percent from 3.6 percent; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house index, 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent; health index, 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent; and transport index, 1.3 percent from 1.0 percent. The rest of the commodity groups either had slower annual increases or retained their previous month’s rates.
On an annual basis, the food alone index in NCR advanced by 5.6 percent in March from 4.4 percent in February.
Annual additions were faster in the rice index at 16.3 percent in March from 13.3 percent in February; meat index, 2.5 percent from 2.0 percent; fish index, 7.1 percent from 3.4 percent; milk, cheese and egg index, 2.8 percent from 2.1 percent; fruit index, 0.4 percent from -0.7 percent; and food products not elsewhere classified index, 5.4 percent from 3.4 percent.
Annual increments in the other food groups were either slower or remained at their last month’s rate with the oils and fats index still recording a negative annual adjustment.
In AONCR, the annual growth of all the commodity groups slowed down except in food and non-alcoholic beverages index whose rate was higher at 5.9 percent in March from 5.8 percent in February and in communication and education indices which retained their respective previous month’s rates of zero and 4.8 percent.
The annual inflation in the food alone index in AONCR improved to 6.1 percent in March from 6.2 percent in February.
A slower annual uptick was observed in the fish index at 3.5 percent in March from 3.9 percent in February and in vegetable index, 9.4 percent from 12.9 percent.
The annual growth in the rice index in AONCR however further went up to 11.2 percent in March from 10.3 percent in February as all the regions posted higher annual gains except Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas and ARMM. The highest rate at 16.3 percent was noticed in Cagayan Valley while the lowest inflation was in Davao at 3.8 percent.
Faster annual rates were reported in all the other food groups.
By Region, Month-on-Month
Consumer prices in NCR generally declined by 0.1 percent in March from zero growth in February. Downward adjustments were observed in the corresponding indices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels and transport at -0.7 percent and -0.1 percent from 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively. Moreover, movements in the six commodity groups decelerated. On the contrary, the increment in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index was higher at 0.4 percent from -0.6 percent while the indices for communication and education hardly moved.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index further dropped by 0.8 percent in March from -0.2 percent in February thus, pushing down the all items index in AONCR by 0.1 percent in March from 0.1 percent growth. Contributing to the downtrend were the slower rates posted in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 0.3 percent from 0.5 percent and clothing and footwear, 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent. Higher monthly rates were however, noted in the indices of transport at 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent and recreation and culture, 0.1 percent from zero growth. The rest of the commodity groups either had zero growth or retained their previous month’s rate.
Eight regions had negative monthly rates with Ilocos recording the lowest at -0.8 percent. Meanwhile, Central Visayas had the highest monthly gain of 0.5 percent in March.
Among the three big areas of the country, prices of consumer items in general, moved downward in Luzon compared to those in Visayas and Mindanao areas.
By Commodity Group, Month-on-Month
Consumer prices in the Philippines dropped by 0.1 percent in March from a growth of 0.1 percent in February due to the 0.8 percent decrease in the index for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels. In addition, slower monthly upticks were recorded in the rest of the commodity groups except in the indices of food and non-alcoholic beverages; health; communication; and education which retained their last month’s rate.
Continuous inflow of vegetables from the production sites met consumption requirements during the month. This factor resulted to lower price quotations of vegetables in the market. Thus, the vegetable index in the Philippines dropped by 4.0 percent; NCR, -3.7 percent; and AONCR, -4.1 percent.
The fish index in AONCR decreased by 0.6 percent. The good catch of fishermen brought about by the prevalence of good weather conditions reduced prices of fresh fish in the wet markets during the month. In NCR, the group’s index went up 0.1 percent from -2.1 percent. The fish index in the Philippines fell by 0.4 percent.
The oils and fat’s index in NCR moved by -0.6 percent as cooking oil were generally cheaper during the month. However, price increments in cooking oil and butter in many regions pushed up the group’s index in AONCR by 1.1 percent. At the national level, the oils and fats index grew by 0.7 percent.
Upward adjustments in the prices of rice further raised the group’s index in the three areas: Philippines, 1.1 percent from 0.9 percent; NCR, 2.2 percent from 1.1 percent; and AONCR, 1.0 percent from 0.8 percent.
The corn index in NCR went down by 3.8 percent. On the contrary, the corn index in AONCR climbed by 1.5 percent. Hence, the national index picked up 1.3 percent.
Higher prices of cheese in most of the regions including those of milk and eggs brought a 0.4 percent growth in the milk, cheese and egg index in the Philippines and AONCR and 0.8 percent in NCR.
The 0.7 percent decline in the index for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels in NCR and -0.8 percent in AONCR and in the Philippines were attributed to the lower charges in electricity rates and price rollbacks in LPG and kerosene.
With higher prices of some items for personal care and effects, the restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services index in AONCR went up by 0.2 percent and in NCR and in the Philippines, 0.1 percent.
The transport index in AONCR rose 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent. This was effected by the price hikes in gasoline and diesel together with price mark-ups in selected spare parts and accessories for personal transport equipment in some regions. Meanwhile, downward price adjustments in LPG auto gas and diesel pushed down the transport index in NCR by 0.1 percent from a growth of 0.2 percent last month. The national index moved up at a slower rate of 0.1 percent from 0.2 percent.
NOTE:
CPIs and inflation rates by province and selected city are also available upon request at NSO, Industry and Trade Statistics Department, Economic Indices and Indicators Division (Telephone Numbers: 716-39-35 and 715-33-47).
(Sgd.) ROMEO S. RECIDE
Interim National Statistician
