CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
(1994=100)
JULY 2000

l By Commodity Group, Year-on-Year

è The rates for FBT picked up to 2.2 percent in July from 1.8 percent in June; FLW, 10.1 percent from 9.5 percent; services, 10.7 percent from 10.2 percent; and miscellaneous items, 2.5 percent from 2.4 percent. On the other hand, the rates for clothing slowed down to 2.3 percent from 2.4 percent; and housing & repairs (H&R), 4.3 percent from 4.6 percent.

l By Region, Year-on-Year

® The inflation rate for MM increased to 4.6 percent in July from 3.7 percent in June.

® Inflation in AOMM went up to 4.1 percent in July from 4.0 percent a month earlier. Nine regions posted higher inflation rates. The biggest increase was registered in Western Visayas at 0.8 percentage point followed by Central Mindanao at 0.4 percentage point. ARMM still recorded the highest rate at 10.0 percent while the lowest was still in Ilocos at 2.2 percent.

l By Commodity Group, Month-on-Month

® The month-on-month inflation rates for services slowed down to 1.0 percent in July from 4.0 percent last month and miscellaneous items, 0.1 percent from 3.4 percent. The indexes for FBT and FLW moved up to 0.3 percent and 1.2 percent from their corresponding rates of –0.3 percent and 0.6 percent last month. Clothing and H&R moved at their June rates of 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

• The price of rice advanced by 0.8 percent in July from 0.4 percent the previous month. Twelve regions posted higher month-on-month rates. The highest rate was in Bicol at 2.4 percent followed by Western Visayas at 2.1 percent. The price of rice in MM had zero growth this month from –0.3 percent last month.
• Typhoons Edeng and Ditang which hit the northern provinces pulled vegetable prices up in these areas including MM. In addition, floods in Central Luzon and Metro Manila constrained the flow of farm produce from the north; thus traders obtained their vegetable supplies from Bicol, Visayas and portions of Mindanao. This caused the fruits and vegetables index to increase in MM, 2.3 percent from –10.6 percent and 0.2 percent from zero in AOMM.
• Prices of miscellaneous foods in MM declined by 0.1 percent from an increase of 0.2 percent a month earlier as prices of salt, garlic, calamansi, coconut and vinegar were lower in July. However, in AOMM, higher prices of cooking oil, coffee, powdered tonic drink, sugar, calamansi, salt, garlic, and ginger raised the index to 0.4 percent from zero resulting to a 0.3 percent increase at the national level.
• Fish prices in MM moved at a faster rate of –1.0 percent in July from –6.1 percent while in AOMM, it picked up to 0.6 percent from zero in June. This resulted to an increment of 0.3 percent in the national index due to the bad weather conditions brought about by the two typhoons during the month.

® The FLW index picked up to 1.2 percent in July from 0.6 percent a month earlier. This was due to the higher prices of LPG and kerosene along with higher rates for electricity and water consumption in some regions and higher purchased power adjustment (PPA) and currency exchange rate adjustment (CERA) for electricity in MM.

l By Region, Month-on-Month

• Prices in MM climbed up to 0.6 percent in July from zero growth last month. The rates for FBT and FLW were correspondingly higher by 2.4 percentage points and 0.5 percentage point. On the other hand, H&R was lower by 0.1 percentage point; services, 1.8 percentage points; and miscellaneous items, 3.6 percentage points.
• Prices in AOMM moved at 0.4 percent in July, slower than 1.0 percent posted in June. Slower rates were seen in the prices of services, 0.5 percent in July from 4.0 percent in June; and miscellaneous items, 0.1 percent from 3.3 percent. Meanwhile, inflation for FBT was higher at 0.4 percent from 0.2 percent; and FLW, 1.0 percent from 0.4 percent. The H&R and clothing indexes moved at their June rates of 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent respectively. Compared to last month, all the regions except for Western Visayas recorded lower rates. The lowest rate was registered in Cagayan Valley at 0.1 percent while the highest was in Western Visayas at 0.8 percent.