Producer Price Inflation ends 2016 at 4.9%

The Producer Price Inflation (PPI) rate for December 2016 was 4.9 percent

This rate represents a 7.0 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in November 2016 (11.9%).

This rate indicates that, the year-on-year PPI increased by 4.9 percent.

But the month-on-month change in producer price index between November and December 2016 was -0.6 percent

The PPI measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services. The PPI for Ghana reports the producer price indices with reference to September 2006 as the base period.

Deputy Government Statistician, Anthony Amuzu told the media that “Between November and December 2015, there were high increases in water and electricity tariffs … the increase in water was 67.2 and electricity was 59.2 percent.”

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector decreased by 3.8 percentage points over the November 2016 rate of 19.4 percent to record 15.6 percent in December 2016 while the Manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, increased by 0.6 percentage points to record 5.5 percent.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of -7.0 percent in December 2016 indicating a decrease of 45.3 percentage point over the November 2016 rate.

During the month of December 2016, ten out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 5.5 percent.

Manufacture of paper and paper products recorded the highest inflation rate of 60.9 percent while manufacturing of coke, refined petroleum products recorded the lowest producer price inflation rate of -0.1%.