Philippines
Official title
Consumer Price Index for All-Income Households in the Philippines.
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and covers all households (urban and
rural) in 72 provinces in the 13 regions.
Official base
1988 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights were derived from the results of the 1988 household
expenditure survey covering a sample of 19,000 households. Items and
services selected for regular pricing and outlets where these items are
purchased are based on a commodity and outlet survey conducted in 1985
among a sample of 19,000 households. This approach ensures that only
the items most commonly consumed by households are represented in the
index.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food and tobacco
| 198 | 58.5 | ...
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 106 | 4.3 | ...
|
| Housing and repairs
| 34 | 13.3 | ...
|
| Fuel, light and water
| 15 | 5.4 | ...
|
| Services
| 98 | 10.9 | ...
|
| Miscellaneous
| 111 | 7.6 | ...
|
| Total
| 562 | 100.0 | (a) ...
|
Note: (a) There are generally six price quotations for each commodity or service.
Household consumption expenditure
Consumption expenditure for the purpose of the index covers only
expenditure for family living consumption. It excludes residential,
real estate and personal income taxes, gifts, contributions and
assistance to others, life insurance, health and accident insurance,
retirement and social security premiums, the value of services rendered
by a family member to another family member and outlays not considered
as expenditure for family living consumption. It includes the value of
non-cash items of expenditure: own-produced foods consumed, payments in
kind made by the family and imputed rent for owner-occupied houses or
housing supplied free.
Method of data collection
The prices are collected through a price survey carried out in 72
provincial capitals and about 744 municipalities in the country. The
municipalities were selected on the basis of the availability of
commodities and items. The outlets were selected according to the the
volume of sales or turnover of the establishment, the consistency and
completeness of the stock of commodities, the permanence of the outlet,
the co-operativeness of the dealer and the convenience and accessibility
of the outlet. Prices of unprocessed agricultural food items are
collected by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, while prices of
processed food items, beverages and tobacco, and price data for
transportation and services and all other non-food items are obtained by
the National Statistics Office.
The prices are obtained through personal interviews. In Metro
Manilla, the National Capital Region, prices of unprocessed food items
are collected on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week, while
prices of all processed food items, beverages and tobacco are collected
on Friday or Saturday each week. All the other items are priced
twice a month.
Only prevailing market prices are collected for the purpose of the
index. Sale prices are not collected and prices of discounted items
are not quoted.
Housing
Rent quotations are collected monthly. All rental rates are taken from
the tenants. Owner-occupied housing is excluded.
Specification of varieties
The items to be priced are specified in great detail, including the
grade, brand name, size number, quality, make, contents, weight and unit
of measure.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
The items in the market basket are not changed until the base year is
shifted. However, if an item disappears from the market, a substitution
is made on the following basis: (a) the substitute must be of the same
or almost the same quality as the lost item; (b) the substitute must be
of the same price range or price level as the lost item.
Seasonal items
No special treatment is given to seasonal items. Generally, all the
items in the market basket are available throughout the year.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights corresponding
to the base period.
The index is an aggregation of provincial indices: the provincial
indices are first combined to give regional indices and then aggregated
to give the index for the Philippines. All of these are weighted.
Other information
Indices are published for major groups, the current and the preceding
month and for the different regions of the country.
Organisation and publication
National Statistics Office:
Monthly Statistical Bulletin
(Manila).
Idem: Quarterly Journal of Philippine Statistics
.
Idem: Philippine Yearbook
.