Producer Price Inflation decreases

Ghana’s year-on-year Producer Price Index (PPI) fell to 46.7 per cent in September as compared to the August rate of 48.3 per cent.

Mr Anthony Amuzu, Chief Statistician and Director of Surveys and Census Organisation of Ghana Statistical Service, at a media briefing in Accra on Wednesday gave a provisional figure of 1.2 per cent as the month-to-month change in PPI from August 2014 and September 2014.

He said the utilities sub-sector recorded the highest year-on year producer price inflation rate of 76.1 per cent in September 2014, which suggests a 0.3 percentage point increase over the August 2014 rate, followed by the mining and quarrying sub-sector with 50.6 per cent.

According to him, in September 2014, the producer price inflation in the mining and quarrying sub-sector decreased slightly by -0.1 percentage points over the August 2014 rate of 50.7 per cent, to record 50.6 per cent in September 2014.

Mr Amuzu said manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, increased by 2.3 percentage points to record an inflation rate of 39.6 per cent.

He said the explanation to these monthly changes in the producer price indicated that mining and quarrying recorded a monthly inflation rate of 2.1 per cent, while manufacturing recorded 1.2 per cent, with the utility sub-sector recording the lowest monthly rate of 0.2 per cent.

Mr Amuzu assigned factors such as increases in utility prices, and also fluctuations in petroleum prices over the period which might have affected production in these sub-sectors.