The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will change the base year of the consumer price index (CPI) and gross domestic product (GDP) to 2023 from the current 2018, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said Wednesday.
“We are looking at rebasing it to 2023 and the technical staff are already doing the preparatory work,” Mapa said in a briefing at the PSA office in Quezon City.
Mapa said the new base year will likely take effect starting 2026.
“‘Yung aming plan is 2026 January. So right now what we’re doing, tinitignan natin ‘yung commodity items from the last family income and expenditures survey, kasi dun ‘yung source niya. ‘Yung mga weights natin pwede mag adjust (Our plan is 2026 January. So right now what we’re doing, we’re looking at the commodity items from the last family income and expenditures survey, because that’s the source. The weights can be adjusted),” said Mapa.
“For example, the food weight 35 percent ano, so titingnan natin ‘yun. May mga adjustment in terms of consumption. So that’s the first, ‘yun na ‘yung ginagawa ng technical staff (For example, the food weight is 35 percent, so we will look at that. There are adjustments in terms of consumption. So that’s the first, that’s what the technical staff are doing now),” he added.
According to the PSA, rebasing is done to reflect the latest composition of goods and services commonly purchased and availed of by households across provinces and highly urbanized cities in the country.
It also ensures that the expenditure patterns of households are updated.
Mapa said the PSA is determining the new items in 2023 versus 2018.
He said the PSA also uses the commodity and outlet survey (COS) to determine commodities that will be included in the CPI basket.
The COS is a nationwide survey of households conducted to gather data on commodities that a family purchased or consumed or availed of most of the time and the type of outlets where these commodities were purchased within the country.
“When you have an inflation report, mga 500,000 items ‘yan all over the country ang kino-collect ng PSA. Babalik kami dun ulit. Ano ba ‘yung kino-collect, let’s say pasta, ano typical brand, ano ‘yung weight. That’s the process kaya it takes substantial time to prepare and get all of this data (When you have an inflation report, PSA collects about 500,000 items all over the country. We will go back there again. What is collected, let’s say pasta, what is the typical brand, what is the weight. That’s the process so it takes substantial time to prepare and get all of this data),” said Mapa. (Anna Leah Gonzales, PNA)
