Producer inflation drops to 9.3% in July

Producer price inflation for July 2020 declined to 9.3 percent, following a significant increased 9.5 percent recorded in the previous month, new data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed.

This represents a 0.2 percentage points drop in the index.

According to GSS, the marginal decrease in All Industry Inflation Rate from 9.5 percent in June 2020 to 9.3 percent in July 2020 was as a result of a sharp decrease in the inflation rate in the Utility sub-sector.

“The decrease in the Utility sub-sector inflation rate from 12.0 percent in June 2020 to 5.8 percent in July 2020 was as a result of base drift effect.

The base drift was as a result of increases in electricity prices by 11.2 percent and water by 8.0 percent in July 1, 2019,” the Service said.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.

The producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector increased by 3.0 percentage points over the June 2020 rate of 35.2 percent to record 38.2 percent in July 2020.

The producer inflation for Manufacturing which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry increased by 0.6 percentage points to record 4.4 percent.

Trends

In July 2019, the producer price inflation rate for all industry was 8.8 percent.

The rate increased to 10.2 percent in August 2019 but declined continuously to 8.9 percent in October 2019.

The rate increased consistently to record 14.5 percent in January 2020 but declined to record 6.8 percent in March 2020.

Thereafter, the rate increased continuously to record 9.5 percent in June 2020 but declined to 9.3 percent in July 2020.