The Perceived Effects of Inflation on the Budget Consumption of Public Secondary School Teachers in Ragay, Camarines Sur for 2017-2018

Abstract

Inflation rate in the Philippines is consistently increasing for the past few periods and has been the highest among the ASEAN countries. Inflation is the general rise in the prices of goods and services, thus leading to a fall in the value or purchasing threshold of a country’s currency. This descriptive-correlational research determined the perceived impact on teachers’ budget consumption and decisions caused by inflation for the period 2017-2018. Survey design that was utilized to collect data is a self-developed questionnaire-checklist. Sample of 127 public secondary school teachers in the local government area of Ragay was selected from the entire population of the study using convenience sampling. The data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics and Pearson r correlation to test the hypotheses. The study reveals that the teachers agreed that there were increases in prices of goods and services for the period. The public secondary school teachers also agreed that there were changes in their budget consumption and decisions, such as the escalation of household and personal expenditure, the substitution of preferences, reduction of the quantity of consumption, engagement in part-time jobs and other income-generating activities, the realization of fewer savings, and incurrence of loans and borrowings. Consequently, based on the findings, there is a moderate positive correlation that exists between the teachers’ perception of inflation and changes in budget consumption and decisions. The relationship is found to be significant.