Special Release: CALABARZON's Inflation at 3.5 percent in January 2020
Release-Date
Reference-Number
2020-0400-SR01
Figure 1. Inflation Rate on All Items in CALABARZON (2012=100) Inflation in the region for January 2020 was measured at 3.5 percent, highest since March 2019. This is 0.8 percent index points lower than the recorded inflation rate in the same month of 2019 at 4.3 percent. In the opposite manner, this month’s inflation is 2.5 percent index points higher than the lowest inflation posted in September 2019 at 1.0 percent. Table 1. Year-on-Year Inflation Rate by Province, All Items (2012=100) Area Jan 2020 Dec 2019 Jan 2019 CALABARZON 3.5 3.1 4.3 Batangas 3.5 2.2 5.3 Cavite 4.7 4.1 4.1 Laguna 2.5 2.1 3.9 Quezon 3.0 3.3 3.3 Rizal 3.6 3.8 4.7 The growth in inflation rate of the region during the month can be traced from the recorded inflation rate of the three provinces that exhibited acceleration compared with the record in December 2019. The province of Cavite which recorded the highest inflation across provinces in the region during last month continued to grow by 0.6 percent index points. Similarly, inflation rate in the provinces of Batangas and Laguna grew by 1.3 and 0.4 percent index points, respectively, while in Quezon and Rizal, inflation rates slid down 0.3 and 0.2 percent index points, respectively. Compared with the recorded inflation in January 2019, all the provinces except Cavite recorded deceleration. The province of Batangas exhibited the highest deceleration of 1.8 percent index points followed by Laguna that ticked down by 1.4 percent index points. Conversely, the province of Cavite had its inflation rate grew by 0.6 percent index points. Table 2. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates in CALABARZON, All Items, January 2015 to January 2020 (2012=100) Month Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 January 1.2 0.6 2.2 2.9 4.3 3.5 February 1.2 -0.1 3.2 3.5 3.8 March 1.2 0.0 3.7 3.6 3.3 April 0.8 0.0 3.6 3.9 3.1 May 0.6 0.2 3.5 4.0 3.2 June 0.2 1.0 2.4 4.7 2.5 July -0.3 1.2 2.2 5.9 2.2 August -0.5 1.1 2.5 6.1 1.7 September -0.9 1.6 3.1 6.2 1.0 October -0.8 1.7 3.2 6.1 1.4 November -0.2 1.9 3.0 5.8 1.4 December 0.5 1.8 2.9 4.8 3.1 Average 0.2 0.9 2.9 4.8 2.6 The year-on-year inflation rates revealed that the highest annual average was registered in 2018 at 4.8 percent while the lowest average rate was registered at 0.2 percent in 2015. January inflation were of record high in 2019 at 4.3 percent and went down in 2020 but still way above the record in 2015 to 2018. Across all years and on a monthly basis, inflation in September 2018 at 6.2 marked the highest inflation so far recorded since the rebasing of the consumer price index in 2012. More so, during the year 2018, the 2nd semester has the higher monthly inflation rates. On the other hand, a five-month deflation was recorded in 2015 from July to November with inflation in the remaining seven-month period limited only to less than 2 percent. This scenario equated only 0.2 percent annual inflation, the lowest so far during the past five years. Six commodity groups in the region exhibited higher IRs in January 2020 compared with their rates in December 2019, four commodity groups sustained its inflation rate from previous month, and only alcoholic beverages and tobacco registered a lower IR compared with the December 2019 record. The heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages commodity group registered the biggest increase of 0.72 percentage points, from 3.10 percent in December 2019 to 3.82 percent in January 2020. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels commodity group grew by 2.17 percent in January 2020 from its 1.50 percent inflation in December 2019. Recreation and culture commodity group grew a little faster by 0.08 percent index points from its 1.63 percent inflation in December 2019. IRs for the commodity groups of transport, health, and clothing and footwear also exhibited increases during the reference month at 1.65 percent, 3.10 percent and 4.18 percent, respectively. On the other hand, alcoholic beverages and tobacco commodity group slowed down by 1.43 percentage points pushing its inflation rate to 24.28 percent during the month in review. Meanwhile, restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services; education; communication; and furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house commodity groups retained their previous month’s inflation rates at 2.73 percent, 3.57 percent, 0.50 percent and 3.39 percent, respectively. Table 4. Monthly Consumer Price Index for All Income Households in the Philippines, by Commodity Group, Area/Region: January 2019-2020 and December 2018-2019 (2012=100) A R E A / R E G I O N All Items JANUARY DECEMBER 2020 2019 2019 2018 Philippines 122.6 119.1 121.9 118.9 NCR- National Capital Region 119.9 116.8 119.8 116.5 Areas Outside NCR 123.4 119.8 122.5 119.6 Regions: CAR - Cordillera Administrative Region 120.5 117.2 120.4 117.1 I - Ilocos Region 121.2 118.1 120.9 118.2 II - Cagayan Valley 123.6 121.2 122.8 120.9 III - Central Luzon 121.7 117.6 120.7 117.3 IV-A - CALABARZON 120.9 116.8 120.4 116.8 MIMAROPA Region 125.2 121.3 124.1 121.0 V - Bicol Region 125.0 120.3 123.9 119.9 VI - Western Visayas 124.4 120.5 123.2 120.6 VII - Central Visayas 126.1 122.9 125.2 122.5 VIII - Eastern Visayas 127.2 124.7 125.8 123.9 IX - Zamboanga Peninsula 128.4 124.1 126.0 124.6 X - Northern Mindanao 126.6 124.0 125.7 124.0 XI - Davao Region 123.1 120.5 122.3 119.9 XII - SOCCSKSARGEN 126.3 123.5 125.1 122.4 XIII - Caraga 122.1 119.0 121.2 118.6 BARMM - Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 128.5 127.2 127.9 126.9 Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an indicator of change in the average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services commonly purchased by households relative to a base year. It measures how much on the average, prices of goods and services have increased or decreased from a particular reference period. CPI for All Items in the region for January 2020 was recorded at 120.9, a 3.5 percent increase over the record set in the same month a year ago at 116.8. Likewise, CPI for All Items in the region during this month is 0.4 percent higher than the figure recorded in December 2019 at 120.4 or an equivalent increase of 0.5 price index. For areas outside NCR, price index for all items in CALABARZON for January 2020 at 120.9 is positioned second from the lowest quoted CPI which is the Cordillera Administrative Region at 120.5. BARMM still keeps the highest price index at 128.5 during the reported month, higher by 5.9 index points with the national average of 122.6 price index for all items. Compared with January 2019 record, the region’s CPI for all items during this month rose by 4.1 index points, the same movement with that of the national average with 3.5 index point increment. All regions reported an increase in the CPI compared to the last month’s record, Zamboanga Peninsula with the highest reported increment of 2.4 index points followed by Eastern Visayas with 1.4 index point increment. Both the National Capital Region and Cordillera Administrative Region recorded a slight increase in the CPI by 0.1 index point. Figure 2. Purchasing Power of Peso, All Items, by Province in CALABARZON: December 2019 to January 2020 (2012=100) Purchasing Power of Peso (PPP) shows how much the peso in the base period is worth in another period. It gives an indication of the real value of the peso in a given period relative to the peso value in the base period. Purchasing Power of Peso is inversely related to inflation rate. Thus, as inflation rate increases, PPP declines. In January 2020, the PPP in the region is at its second-month constant state at P0.83. This means that the value of P1.00 in 2012 is only worth P0.83 in January this year. During the month, all provinces in the region had sustained their PPP from the previous month. The PPP in Laguna remains the strongest across provinces at P0.87. It was followed by Rizal Province at P0.83 and Batangas and Cavite both at P0.81. Quezon Province displayed the weakest PPP at P0.80 in January 2020. CHARITO C. ARMONIA Regional Director BFP/JAS
Of the estimated 12.07 million population 15 years old and over in CALABARZON, about 64.8 percent or 7.82 million are considered persons in the labor force (See summary statistics). It means that…
