Year-on-Year

The annual growth in the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased to 2.0 percent in July from 1.8 percent in June. The annual change in food index advanced to 1.5 percent in July from 0.8 percent in June; beverages and tobacco index, 3.7 percent from 3.3 percent; crude materials, inedible except fuels index, 9.3 percent from 4.2 percent; and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent. The same previous month's rate of 2.1 percent was seen in miscellaneous manufactured articles index. Meanwhile, the index of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials had a negative annual rate of -6.2 percent from -4.9 percent. The rest of the commodity groups have lower annual growth rates.

Month-on-Month

The monthly gain in the GRPI in NCR eased to 0.3 percent in July from 0.5 percent in June. The movement in the indices of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials and machinery and transport equipment correspondingly decreased by -2.0 percent and -0.4 percent from their last month's respective rates of -5.5 percent and 2.9 percent. Moreover, slower monthly increments were recorded in beverages and tobacco index, 0.4 percent from 0.8 percent; and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index, 0.3 percent from 0.4 percent. On the other hand, higher mark-ups were seen in the index of food and crude materials, inedible except fuels. The index of manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials had a zero growth.

Price hikes in food stuffs such as chicken, beef, pork, selected fish species, sugar, fresh vegetables and selected construction materials were noted during the month. These were however tempered by the price rollbacks in petroleum products such as gasoline, LPG, diesel fuel and kerosene and the price reductions in selected electric machinery apparatus.