PPI Rises to 7.2 Percent in October

By David Takyi

The Producer Price Inflation rose from 5.8 per cent in September to 7.2 per cent in October, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.

This represents a 1.4 percentage point increase in the producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in September 2018 (5.8 per cent).

The month-on-month change in producer price index between September 2018 and October 2018 was 1.6 per cent.

Mr Baah Wadieh, acting Government Statistician, addressing a news conference in Accra, explained that the rise in the PPI was influenced by the mining and quarrying sub-sector which recorded an increase of 4.0 percentage points over the September 2018 rate of 0.4 per cent to record 4.4 per cent in October.

The producer inflation for manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry, increased by 1.2 percentage points to record 9.7 per cent, he said.

The acting Government Statistician said the utilities sub-sector recorded inflation rate of -0.1 per cent in October, indicating an increase of 0.1 percentage point over the previous month's rate.

Three out of the 16 major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 9.7 per cent during the month under review.

Among others, manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded the highest inflation rate of 36.1 per cent, while manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded no change in inflation rate.

Mr Wadieh said the producer inflation rate for the petroleum sub-sector went upward from 31.1 in September 2018 to 36.1 per cent in October 2018.

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

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