Year-on-Year

The annual gain in the GRPI in NCR eased to 0.5 percent in April from 1.3 percent in March. The annual change in crude materials, inedible except fuels index dropped by -21.0 percent in April from 0.5 percent in March and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials index, -6.1 percent from 6.0 percent. In addition, the annual hike in machinery and transport equipment index slowed down to 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent. Higher annual growth rates were registered in the rest of the commodity groups while the annual rate of miscellaneous manufactured articles remained at 1.4 percent.

Month-on-Month

On a monthly basis, the increase in the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) decelerated to 0.2 percent in April from 0.3 percent in March. The index of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials had a negative monthly rate of -0.7 percent in April from 3.0 percent in March. Moreover, the monthly increment in beverages and tobacco index slowed down to 0.4 percent in April from 0.6 percent in March; chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index, 0.4 percent from 0.5 percent; and machinery and transport equipment index, 0.1 percent from 0.5 percent. The same last month's rate of 0.4 percent was observed in manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials index while that for crude materials, inedible except fuels index had a zero growth. The rest of the commodity groups have higher monthly growth rates.

Price decreases were noted in petroleum products such as gasoline, LPG, diesel fuel and kerosene. On the other hand, price gains were noticed in foodstuffs such as selected fish species, fresh fruits, sugar and vegetables.

Source: National Statistics Office
Manila, Philippines

Page last revised: June 13, 2012