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 and AONCR correspondingly accelerated to 121.2 and 125.2 in August from their respective July levels of 120.8 and 124.7.

   The lean month of August and the continuous rains experienced during the first half of the month that caused slight delays in moving vegetables from production areas to wet markets generally pulled up prices of FBT items in NCR and AONCR relative to the expected trend. Higher prices of selected fruits not in season also contributed to the uptrend.

   The seasonally adjusted month-on-month inflation of FBT items in AONCR moved up to 0.4 percent in August from 0.2 percent in July while that for NCR slowed down to 0.3 percent from 0.6 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 posted at their corresponding August levels of 141.3 and 134.9 were higher than their respective July levels of 140.1 and 134.3 percent. Seasonal factors such as the low demand of goods and services during the lean month of August did not raise prices of non-FBT items in NCR relative to the expected trend. On the other hand, these seasonal factors pushed up prices of non-FBT items in AONCR.

Compared with July 2005, the seasonally adjusted CPI of non-FBT items in NCR and AONCR went up to 0.9 percent and 0.4 percent in August. These were however, slower than their respective last month?s rates of 1.4 percent and 0.8 percent.