Bacolod City's inflation rate increased by about 1.2 percent as of the third quarter of 2005, data of the National Statistics Office-Negros Occidental show.

By end-September 2005, inflation rate was 7.0 percent while in the same period in 2004, 5.8 percent, Eusebio Gale, statistician II, said yesterday.

The difference reflects the percentage of the increase in prices of prime commodities in the city from September 2004 to September 2005, Gale said. In terms of the purchasing power of peso, he said, this means that every peso spent by Bacoleños was only worth 86 centavos as of September 2004 while as of September 2005, only 80 centavos.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental's inflation rate slightly increased by 0.3 percent - from 5.2 percent by end-September 2004 to 5.5 percent as of end-September 2005.

Gale said the purchasing price of peso in the province is 85 centavos as of the third quarter of 2004 and also 80 centavos in the same period in 2005.

NSO calculates and announces the overall Consumer Price Index and the rate of inflation based on a survey of prices.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said inflation refers to the rate of change in the average prices of goods and services typically purchased by consumers. If inflation is low and stable, it can be said that there is price stability.

Inflation is typically defined as annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index. The CPI represents the average price for a given period of a standard basket of goods and services consumed by a typical Filipino family, including food products, clothing and electricity, whose price movements are monitored to determine the overall change in CPI, or the level of inflation.*NLG

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