Producer inflation falls to 14.5 percent in Feb

Ghana’s producer price inflation (PPI) fell to 14.5 percent year-on-year in February from a revised figure of 16.9 percent the month before, reflecting lower utility prices, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

PPI is a major component of consumer inflation, which fell to 18.5 percent in February from 19.0 percent the month before.

Persistently above-target consumer inflation is one of the economic problems being addressed by Ghana’s three-year International Monetary Fund aid programme.

“The push-down factor was mainly lower utilities prices, which recorded (substantially more) stability in February than we saw a year ago,” government statistician Philomena Nyarko told a news conference.

The utility sector recorded year-on-year producer inflation of 43.9 percent, down 7.9 percent from a month before. PPI in manufacturing was 9.8 percent compared with 0.2 percent in January, while mining and quarrying saw inflation of 8.6 percent, up from 7.8 percent a month before.

The West African country produces gold, cocoa and oil. After increasing sharply for years, economic growth has slumped due to lower global commodity prices, economic problems including high debt and deficits, and power shortages.