Producer price inflation drops to 3.1%

The Producer Price Inflation (PPI) for the month of January 2017 decreased to 3.1 per cent from the 4.8 per cent recorded in December 2016. This represents a 1.7 per cent decrease in the period under review.

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

At a press conference in Accra last Wednesday, the Acting Government Statistician, Mr Baah Wadieh, attributed the decrease to the mining and quarrying, manufacturing and the utilities sub-sectors.

He said the mining and quarrying sub sector recorded the highest year-on-year PPI rate of 18.6 per cent, followed by the manufacturing sub sector with 2.4 per cent. However, the utilities sub sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of -6.8 per cent.

Monthly changes

With respect to the monthly changes, the mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest rate of 4.9 per cent followed by the manufacturing sub sector with 2.0 per cent. The utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest rate of 0.2 per cent.

Trends

In January 2016, the PPI rate for all industries was 16.9 per cent. In February 2016, the rate decreased to 14.5 per cent and continued its downward trend to record 11.2 per cent in April 2016.

In June 2016, it dropped further to 7.6 per cent but increased to 10.4 per cent in July 2016 and then to 11.1 per cent in August 2016. The rate declined in September 2016 to record 9.7 per cent but increased marginally to 9.8 per cent in October 2016.

It increased further to 11.9 per cent in November 2016 but declined to 4.8 per cent in December 2016 and then to 3.1 per cent in January 2017.

Petroleum price index

The PPI rate in the petroleum sub-sector was 3.3 per cent in January 2016. In February 2016, it declined to 0.5 per cent but increased to record 2.9 per cent in March 2016 as a result of the base drift effect.

The rate increased again to 6.5 per cent in April 2016 but declined slightly to 6.1 per cent in May 2016.

In June 2016, the rate decreased to record -4.7 per cent and then to -19.3 per cent in July 2016. The rate increased to -16.3 per cent in August 2016, and further to -14.8 per cent in September 2016, and -7.4 per cent in October 2016.

In November 2016, it increased to record -0.2 per cent and then to -0.1 per cent in December 2015. The rate declined to -16.9 per cent in January 2017.