Consumer Prices, Inflation Rate and Purchasing Power of the Peso

4.3.1 Consumer Price Index (CPI)

The prices of all commodities in 1999 manifested an increase of 145.6% over that of the 1994 level. It increased by 7.2 % over the prices in 1998 (138.4) and 9.6% over in 1997 (128.8). The prices of food items escalated faster (149.8) than the non-food commodity (138.5). Among the non-food items, services marked the highest price increase (155.6), followed by housing and repairs (141.1), then by fuel, light and water (134.8). (Table 4-4)

4.3.2 Inflation Rate

In 1995, the Province experienced the highest inflation rate which was computed at 14.6%. In 1998, it stood at 7.5%. It was lower in 1999 at 5.2%. (Table 4-4)

4.3.3 Purchasing Power of Peso

In 1999, the Province's peso purchasing power was only 0.69. Inflation was observed to have followed a fluctuating pattern. But the decline of the purchasing power followed a straight downward trend. (Table 4-4)