Producer Price Index down to 2.0 per cent in July

The year-on-year inflation from the Producer Price Index (PPI) for all industry decreased to 2.0 per cent in July 2017, against the 3.2 per cent recorded in June this year.

The rate shows a 1.2 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in June 2017.

“The month-on-month change in the producer price index between June 2017 and July 2017 was -0.2 per cent,” Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician, told a media conference in Accra on Wednesday.

According to the Acting Government Statistician, the decline in the rate was mainly due to Mining and Quarrying, which declined by 7.9 percentage point in the month of July.

He explained that the decline in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector was due to the 2 per cent in the World market price for Gold in July 2017.

Meanwhile, the PPI in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 4.1 per cent, followed by the Manufacturing sub-sector with 1.8 per cent.

Explaining the trends, Mr Wadieh observed that in July 2016, the PPI rate for all industry was 10.4 per cent, however, it increased to 11.1 per cent in August 2016.

“The rate declined in September 2016 to record 9.7 per cent but increased to 11.9 per cent in November 2016, but it declined consistently to 3.1 per cent in January 2017.

“With the rate increased to 5.4 per cent in February 2017 and then to 6.0 per cent in March 2017 but later declining consistently to record 2.0 per cent in July 2017,” he said.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 1.3 per cent.

With respect to the monthly changes, the Manufacturing and Utilities sub-sectors did not record a change.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recoded the lowest rate of -1.1 per cent.