Food, Beverages and Tobacco (FBT) and Non-FBT Items
(NCR and AONCR - January 2011)

A. 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 in NCR and AONCR registered correspondingly at 158.3 and 173.8 in January were higher than their respective December levels of 157.4 and 172.5.

The effects of the inclement weather condition that brought floods in some vegetable producing areas particularly those in the Bicol region affected the supply of vegetables in selected regions including the NCR. Prices of selected off-season fruits were also on the uptrend during the month. Moreover, the difficulty in catching fish species that usually settle deep in the waters during the cold mornings caused price increments for selected fish species in the wet markets. Thus, the price movements of FBT items in NCR were generally pushed up by these seasonal factors. These seasonal factors however did not raise prices of FBT items in AONCR relative to the expected trend.

Compared to last month, the seasonally adjusted CPI for FBT items in NCR and AONCR correspondingly went up to 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent in January. These were higher than their respective growth rates of 0.1 percent and 0.6 percent in December.

B. 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 increased to 172.9 and 168.4 in January from their last month’s respective levels of 171.7 and 167.2. Seasonal factors such as the practice of implementing business changes at the beginning of the year like increasing rental rates in selected regions did not push up prices of non- FBT items in the two areas relative to the expected trend.

The monthly rate of change of the seasonally adjusted CPI for non-FBT items in NCR eased to 0.7 percent in January from 0.6 percent in December. In AONCR, the same rate was also noted during the month.

Page last updated: February 4, 2011